The Enchantment of Ragu

I've yet to make peace with the fact that in Minnesota the lilacs last one week - and it's a glorious week - unless you're allergic! The tulips last two weeks and the snow lasts 5-6 months. But if one must find a positive in the chilly, biting cold and blowing white precipitation - it has to be ragu. In my New York city life, ragu happened once a year. In Minnesota, ragu happens 4 times a year. In the case of ragu - 4 'ragus' trumps one ragu.
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In Lynne Rossetto's Kasper's loving valentine to Italy's Emilia-Romagna's region, The Splendid Table, Rossetto Kasper writes of a furious debate that ensued after one of Italy's premiere gastronomic societies, L'Academia Italiana della Cucina posted an "official ragu sauce from Bologna." Many Bolognese were insulted that they were not consulted. The worth of using milk versus cream raged. Editorials were written about the inclusion of nutmeg. "It shouldn't be there!" versus "Of course it should!"
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I was so enchanted with the notion of restaurants, homes, shops and cafes debating the issue of "an official Bolognese Ragu Sauce" that I included the arguments in my children's play The Bread, The Bracelet and the Dove (set in Bologna). On their own, many of my young performers researched the beginnings of Bolognese Ragu. Brought up in the Midwest, they were astonished to discover that ragu is not... not.... not a tomato sauce. You can use tomatoes (I do) but they are broken down and flavor and color the meat but definitely do not sauce it. The tomatoes enchant but do not smother.
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Whether you use pork or a skirt steak or turkey sausage, milk or cream, add nutmeg or do without, this sauce dares winter to come into the kitchen. On a weekend, I will do a slow-simmering ragu - taking advantage of a free 3-4 hours. During the week, I make this quicker one which takes 75-90 minutes. (I said it was quicker - I didn't say it was quick.)


A ragu consists of chopped meats and sauteed vegetables cooked in a liquid (broth, wine or a combination). After simmering for hours, a little cream or milk would be added stretching yet another pasta dish into a rich, satisfying meal. It may have had humble beginnings but it earns a prize in creativity. It's ingenuous how peasant cooks took meat scraps and fashioned a luxurious meal. Feel free to substitute at will. Use all broth instead of wine. Mix up the meats. The recipe invites creativity, stirs debate and nourishes body and spirit.
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Fettuccine with Ragu Ingredients (adapted from Tastes of Italia) - serves 6
1 pound fettuccine (cooked according to package directions or homemade)
6 ounces dried procini mushrooms
1 cup beef broth or red wine
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 pound Italian turkey sausage - crumbled (or Italian pork sausage or a skirt steak)
1/2 cup dry red wine (or more beef broth if you do not cook with wine)
3 teaspoons tomato paste
1-15 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes (2 cups of fresh cherry or grape tomatoes could also be used - slice them in half)
1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg
1/3-1/2 cup milk or half-and-half or cream
grated Parmigiano-Reggiano for topping


Fettuccine with Ragu Preparation

1. Soak the mushrooms in beef broth for 30 minutes.
2. In a large skillet, heat butter on medium heat. Ad the onion and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the sausage and brown it (about 5 minutes).
4. Add the wine, the mushrooms with broth, tomato paste and tomatoes. Mix well. Bring to a boil and then simmer for one hour - stirring occasionally. The tomatoes will break down, and as under an enchantment become one with the meat.
5. Stir in the milk and nutmeg and simmer for ten minutes.
6. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve passing Parmigiano-Reggiano separately.

I cannot tell you how much the idea of Italians contesting the worth of a recipe in the marketplace just tickles my fancy! If you like your recipes spiced with history and folklore, consider The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. The book also enchants and nourishes.

When the outside is colder than my freezer ...

... I feel genetically obligated to make pasta. I made this a few weeks ago and noted it in my Cover Girls blog - which is something my sister and I dreamed up - to keep us from going insane in the Minnesota winter (we cook cover recipes from magazines once a month). The day I made this dish, the inside of my freezer was twenty degrees warmer than the air outside my home! I was determined to find a dinner meal that did not entail a trip to the grocery store. I had wearied of putting on all the clothes in my closet to go outside.


I feel like I am double-dipping - using this recipe in two different blogs - but over at La Dolce Vita and Proud Italian Cook, they are holding a Festa and I have the perfect entree: Fettucine with Ragu.


Ragu was not something my family made. They worked their magic with red sauces or "gravy" as it was sometimes called. Grandma and Grandpa hailed from Potenza and Ragu hails from Bologna. Different regions, different dialects and different foods.

I found this in February 2009's issue of Tastes of Italia and it fit my criteria for the evening meal: pasta, comforting and every ingredient was already in the house.

You need: (For four)
1/2 pound fettuccine cooked according to package directions (I used one pound and had enough sauce for all; there is no way 1/2 pound of pasta serves four in my home)
3 oz dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup beef broth
3 T butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 pound sweet Italian sausage - casings removed
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 tsp tomato paste
1 15-oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 tsp nutmeg (I am a recent convert and now grate my own)
1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese for topping (It says optional; Parmesan cheese is never optional ion my home - it is required)


Wash the mushrooms and chop them. Soak the mushrooms in beef broth for 30 minutes. In a large skillet heat the butter on medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the sausage and cook for 5-6 minutes (until it is crumbly and brown). Add tomatoes and cook till mixed..



Add wine, tomato paste, beef broth with porcinis and stir to mix well. Bring to boil, reduce heat and cook for 45 minutes - stirring occasionally.




The simmering time is a must. The flavors intensify and the aroma works its magic. I probably stirred more often than necessary because I liked visiting my sauce. It made me forget that the outside was a bleak frozen tundra.

Stir in the nutmeg and milk and cook for ten minutes. Taste for salt and pepper. Remove and mix with pasta. Top with grated Parmesan.





Easy enough for a casual meal, flavorful enough for the Festa and a quick side trip to Bologna to offset the "frozen tundra blues." Grandma may never have made it but she would have approved.