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The Best Pasta Sauce I Have Ever Cooked

I cooked a ragù for pasta last week and it was absolutely scrummy! I love tagliatelle with a meat sauce and this recipe is fantastic.

First a confession: when I say it’s the best ragù I’ve ever cooked I’m not really saying a lot as I don’t cook that much. So it might be more accurate to say that it’s one of the best meat sauces for pasta I’ve ever tasted, and I managed to prepare it!

If you’re a natural cook I think you’ll find this recipe a doddle. If like me, you’ve difficulty finding the right utensils in your own kitchen then you’ll probably still find this recipe stress free, as nothing is done in a hurry. In fact, after the tomatoes are added the best thing to do is let it slowly simmer away until it reaches the consistency you prefer.

The recipe comes from The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan. I’m not sure if the edition I have is still available but I’m pretty sure the recipe is reproduced in her more recent The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

According to the author, it is important to remember the following points:

  • The meat must be sautéed just barely long enough to lose its raw colour.
  • It must be cooked in milk before the tomatoes are added.
  • It must cook at the merest simmer for 3.5 to 5 hours!

Here are the ingredients for 6 servings:

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 40g butter
  • 2 tablespoons chopped onion
  • 2 tablespoons chopped celery
  • 2 tablespoons chopped carrot
  • 350g minced lean beef preferably chuck or neck
  • Salt
  • 300ml dry white wine
  • 8 (120ml) tablespoons full cream milk
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 400g tinned chopped tomatoes

The Steps:

  1. Heat a heavy based pot and sauté the onion with all the oil and butter until translucent.
  2. Add the celery and carrot and cook 2 minutes.
  3. Add the minced beef, crumble with a fork, add salt, and cook briefly until the meat has just lost its raw colour.
  4. Add the wine and increase the heat to medium high and cook, stirring occasionally until the wine has evaporated.
  5. Reduce the heat to medium and add the milk and nutmeg and once again cook until it has evaporated, stirring from time to time.
  6. Once the milk has evaporated add the tomatoes, stir well and reduce the heat to the gentlest simmer.
  7. Stir occasionally and allow it to cook uncovered for 3.5 to 4 hours. 5 is best.
  8. Adjust the seasoning adding more salt and pepper to suit.

I didn’t follow the recipe exactly and purists will probably despair at my changes, but the end result was fantastic.

I started with 1kg of mince, so I multiplied everything except the wine and the milk by two and a half.

I increased the volume of wine and the milk by about 50%.

I used low fat milk.

I had no celery, so I left it out.

I used two small onions, one large carrot, lean round steak mince. And possibly the biggest faux pas, I used French wine!

I’m fairly certain I didn’t simmer for 5 hours.

Why I like this sauce:

  • It tastes great, wonderful depth of flavour
  • It’ll keep in the fridge for 3 days
  • You can freeze it
  • You can use it with pasta (tagliatelle is best) or in a lasagne
  • All you have to be able to do is chop and stir – not that hard really.
  • Did I mention it tastes great?

Buon appetito!

February 25th, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Food | 4 comments

Ransom by David Malouf: An epic tale told beautifully

I’ve just finished reading Ransom by David Malouf. I bought it after reading a review by Eileen Battersby in the Irish Times in November last year.

It was fantastic. It instilled that conflict that comes only when reading a story that demands my full attention; with a third of book left I wanted to finish it, but I put it down because I didn’t want it to end too quickly.

It tackles an episode from the Trojan War when the grief stricken king of Troy travels to his enemy’s camp without his bodyguards and usual royal retinue, to plead for the return of the body of his slain son.

The war has been going on for years and although there have been many losses on both sides recent events, the tragic death of Achilles friend Patroclus at the hands of Hector and the subsequent slaying of Hector by the vengeful Achilles, bring Priam, Hector’s father and king of Troy, and Achilles the most fearsome Greek warrior, to a fateful meeting.

The story has themes of loss, pride, revenge, humility, mortality and transformation. Each approached with deft skill in this relatively short, 224 page novel.

David Malouf has had a fascination with Troy since he was a child.

I’ve also been fascinated by the story which is full of whimsical gods, larger than life heroes and fatally flawed mortals.

Unlike Malouf, I haven’t read Homer’s Iliad, but I have listened more than once to Andrew Rissik’s excellent Troy Trilogy. I don’t think it is available to buy, so keep an eye on BBC Radio 7 which I believe has broadcast it every year since 2004.

I appreciate that the style of writing can be a major influence on the enjoyment of a story so here is an excerpt from the book courtesy of the New York Times to help you decide if it’s for you.

Once I knew the setting of the tale I was always going to read it. I’m glad I did. It is the most enjoyable book I’ve read in a very long time.

February 22nd, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Books | 4 comments

Star Gazing and Constellation Spotting in Winter

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. ~ Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900), Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892, Act III

Last night at around 8pm I turned a corner and there staring right back at me was The Hunter, Orion.

I was facing south and at an elevation of about 30 degrees and I was able to make out his shoulders, his shiny belt, his right knee and his left foot, set against a clear night sky.

orion

When visible, Orion is easy to spot because it is bright and has a distinctive shape, three close stars for Orion’s belt, two stars above are his shoulders and two stars below mark a knee and a foot.

orion-the-hunter

I wasn’t able to see his club, held above his head, or his shield as there was plenty of light pollution to contend with. Dublin, like any city, isn’t the best place for looking at the stars. Lights from buildings, street lamps and cars make it hard to see faint stars without the aid of binoculars or a telescope.

But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and last night it was easy to see and identify half a dozen constellations with your eye alone. All you have to do is first find Orion (look south) and let it be your guide.

orion-sign-post

This is what you do:

  • following the line of the belt towards the northwest you’ll meet Aldebaran of the constellation Taurus (The Bull)
  • following the line of the belt towards the southeast you’ll meet Sirius of the constellation Canis Major (The Great Dog)
  • A line from Rigel through Betelgeuse (stars of Orion) points to Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini (The Twins)
  • A line eastward across the two shoulders leads you towards Procyon of the constellation Canis Minor (The Little Dog)
from-orion

Away from Orion, if you look to the north you can see Ursa Major (The Great Bear), Polaris of Ursa Minor (The Little Bear) and Cassiopeia (The Queen).  I’ll let you look these up for yourself.

For a long time I thought that Polaris (The North Star) was the brightest object in the night sky, but that distinction belongs to Sirius of Canis Major (The Great Dog). (I feel a John McEnroe impression coming.)

Looking at the stars, learning about the constellations doesn’t cost much and there are plenty of online articles and books that help.

Two books I really liked are

The Stars: A New Way to See Them by H. A. Rey

and

Simple Stargazing by Anton Vamplew

Apart from books there’s plenty of great software freely available that you can use to identify the stars and constellations.

My favourite at the moment is Stellarium which is available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux operating systems. It allows you to set your location, set your date and time, and explore the night sky with easy navigation.

It’ll display constellation lines and constellation art to help identify what you’re looking at. It helps track star movements over time (the Earth doesn’t stay still, orbiting the sun and spinning on its axis means that many constellations are only visible at certain times of the year, and they appear to move through the night sky).

If you decide to hunt “The Hunter”, here are a few  tips:

A friend who likes to look at the stars, got into the habit of sending me a text in the early hours of the  morning whenever they were clearly visible. It got out of hand when on a cloudy night he sent a text saying that there was a total eclipse of everything. I don’t keep my phone near my bed anymore.

February 19th, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: Books, Outdoors | Leave a comment
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