Low and slow, all that Nonna would love
What wine do you use for your meat sauce? I get asked that questi a lot. I will give you my answer below – after we talk about something really nice!
Last Halloween, I reviewed a cookbook that rocked, Pasta Sfoglia. I have not done many reviews since then, but there was a recipe in there that stuck inside my head. It was “Big Nonna’s Sunday Ragu” that had me intrigued.
I had a few cuttings here and there leftover to use up, plus a stray veal chop that had no home in the freezer. It was time to make up that recipe. I of course just followed the book as a guideline, and was off on a tangent.
The result was different than usual. I am not sure that the wife liked it, as she is into what her mother used to make. What came out of the crockpot was akin to a cross between a stew, and a meat sauce. Very tomato like. I called it very good. My son ate it, and he is the harshest critic of all.
What wine did I use? Well, if you follow the Italians, you do not over-complicate things. You use the same wine you would drink. For me, it was a red I had in the cupboard.
Don’t use a wine that is stupidly expensive; it should be something you could drink while making this sauce. I wish I could just give you a rule on what to use, but cooking does not work that way – you will have to find out for yourself.
Here in its glory is what I did for this recipe:
Sunday Ragu
Serves: a lot. About 10 people
Ingredients:
- 300 grams (10 ounces) rib eye scraps
- 250 grams (8 oz) veal chop (1 lone chop, with bone – leave it in!)
- 200 grams (7 ounces) pork trim
- 300 grams (10 ounces) minced beef (chuck)
- 1 medium sized onion, peeled, minced
- 1 carrot, peeled, minced
- 2 ribs celery, minced
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled, mashed
- 45 mL (3 tablespoons) olive oil
- 100 mL (3 ounces) red wine
- 250 mL (1 cup) tomato paste
- 1 can (regular size, 350 mL) whole plum tomatoes, crushed with your hands
- 2 bay leaves
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
Method:
- Sear meats in a little olive oil until lightly browned; move to the crock pot.
- Add the pureed vegetables to the crock pot over the meat.
- Deglaze the pan with red wine; pour into the crock pot.
- Add tomato paste, mix well.
- Add tomatoes, bay leaves and seasonings.
- Cook on low for 8 hours.
- Remove bay leaves, bones and reserve the sauce for pasta.
I suggest using fettuccine or pappardelle for this sauce, as it will stand up to the sauce.
What wine would you use for this sauce?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
where do you live again? lol
@Dawn – LOL. Saint Eustache Quebec. Not sure there will be any left by the time you arrive though…
Ah, now I know how people who are not in the U.S. feel when they read my recipes – Cups? Tablespoons? I don’t do grams and milliliters. LOL Oh, I jest – I’ve got a food scale and a conversion chart.
And I never buy stupidly expensive wine, because then I’ll be afraid to drink it and that’s just wrong.
@Jan – Oh, I love stupidly expensive wine, like when someone else buys it. For me, I never thought it was smart to cook with it. I like a middle of the road vintage that I can enjoy while my wife gives me the eye daggers. (Something about drinking too much? I say a glass a day keeps the doctor away.)
Crap, I forgot to put the equivilents in the recipe. I will fix that up. Thanks!
{edited} The amounts are there. Whew! Thanks Jan, that was close!
Growing up we had a neighbor that was Lebanese. However, the husband was all Italian. She learned to make sauce from her MIL. I swear it was the best sauce I have ever had in my life! I have tried to get the recipe from her but have been unsuccesful. Except I do know she starts with chuck roast (maybe even veal). The sauce takes a long time to make. Its not something you make and eat in 30 minutes.
Man, I have to hit her up for the recipe again. MMMMM
She also would make linguine and clams. Not for me. But my oldest brother loved it. Yes all of the neighbor kids were spoiled by her. Very nice lady.
@Anne – I know how hard it can be to get that recipe from the grandmother or the MIL. I know that my wife’s Nonna used to save the drippings from her roasts and put them into the sauce. That is probably what made it soooo good!