right before christmas during the mad rush to finish shopping at eastern market, i also spied some fresh pasta. we couldn't decide on one type, so we ended up buying three different flavors: porcini tagliatelle, salt cod ravioli, and pumpkin and chestnut ravioli.

because we were having fresh pasta, i didn't want to have any old plain jarred sauce from safeway (which we normally don't have anyways). so i decided to make a bolognese ragu to top our pasta.

i got the recipe from m.bittman's how to cook everything, but i also double checked a bolognese recipe from epicurious, and they seemed somewhat similar, so i stuck with bittman's version. and, because i wanted to freeze some for future use, i decided to double the recipe.

i'm going on memory, but these are the ingredients i used in the doubled reciped:

1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
2 carrots, minced
1 large onion, minced
2 celery stalks, minced
2 28oz cans whole plum tomatoes, drained
1-2 cups half and half
1-2 cups chicken stock
1-2 cups white wine
1-2 tbsp olive oil

heat up olive oil, add carrots, onion, celery and cook until tender. add ground meat, breaking up the larger pieces until cooked through. add white wine and reduce, then add stock and reduce. then i added the whole plum tomatoes, crushing each tomato with my hands. i let this cook for at least 2 hours (more is better), until all the flavors melded. about 30-45 minutes before i knew we were going to eat, i mixed in the half and half.

(later i did see a recipe that used tomato paste instead of the canned tomatoes, so next time i'll try that recipe and see the difference.)

i made it early enough in the day so that i could let it cook for a couple of hours and we had it on the fresh porcini tagliatelle. it was extremely delicious. bolognese ragu is supposed to be heavy on the meat, and light on the sauce, and this was exactly what we made. it was perfect on our fresh pasta, and really complemented the meaty flavor of the porcini pasta.

so right. i made the bolognese sauce before christmas, and i ended up freezing half of it. i brought some to the 'rents to cook during new years, but i totally forgot about it, but when we got back to dc, i put half of it in the fridge to defrost.

we probably won't eat the ragu tonight (because i think we are going out to dinner), so i'll have to report back to see how well the bolognese sauce froze. i'm hoping that the quality of the sauce did not deteriorate due to the freezer, but who knows. either way, we'll eat it because i'm not a big fan of wasting food.

Labels: beef, cooking, pork, wine