by samzadgan » Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:04 pm
My Ragu...
firstly, im not one for measurements, i just keep making something till it tastes good, and remember the quantities by site more than by measurements...but below is a rough guide, and adjust to taste...
The Meat:
overall about 500g for one batch to serve 2-4 people depending on how much you each
of that 500g, 400g lean beef mince and 100g pork mice
finely chop flat leaf parsley (a handfull)
finely chop thyme (about a quarter of the parsley)
3-4 pinches of ground rock salt
1 pinch of ground black pepper
mix the meat, hearbs, salt and pepper and make them into balls (size is up to you...mine are about the size of a ping pong ball)
Put them in a pan with a bit of olive oil and fry them for about 5 minutes, just to cook the outside and get a little colour, and release the oils in the meat. Then put the meat to the side.
The Sauce:
crush and roughly chop up about 5-6 cloves of garlic (thats a lot, so you can do less if you want)
finely chop half a white onion (or 1 small one - the less garlic you do the more onion you should do)
finely chop 1-2 red chillies, no seeds
a bottle of Passata (500ml - 700ml depending on how you want the consistency of the sauce)
finely dice 2-3 fresh tomatoes.
First fry off the onions and the garlic with a little oil till they start browing, then add the chilli and a teaspoon of butter...make sure you dont burn the butter so adjust the heat to compensate. Once all three have been fried for a few minutes and you can smell the chilli, add the fresh tomatoes and stir till the tomatoes juices are absorbed a little...finally add the Passata and 2-3 dried sage leaves.
Leave the sauce on low heat for about 20minutes, then add the meatballs with all the oil. If the oil is too much, then just add a couple of spoons...you want the flavour not the oil.
Leave this mixture on very low heat for about 3-4hours with a lid...longer if you can. Or, you can even put in the over, which turns out even better.
The idea is that by the end you should get a dense thick sauce that has had time to develop. If its too thick, you can always add a few spoon of the Pasta water.
For Pasta, with this sauce I prefer something like the big Tubes, or Seashells.
I usually make this on a Sunday if we are home all day, start at about midday, and then we have it for dinner that night.
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