Ragu

On the English Forum this week there was a thread on Pasta sauce and Bolognese sauce, etc. I have read several things and would not comment on that. I just want to add this post, complimentary to last week one on Tagliatelle, where I would like to share with you the hits and tricks to make a proper Ragu. Before I start please let me make a few comments on this topic:

1. There is no such thing as Bolognese Sauce in Italy. What you mean with this term is Ragu or Sugo in Italy. Stay away from a restaurant that in Italy serves Spaghetti Bolognese, it is a tourist trap for sure.
2. There is no such thing as the real recipe for the Ragu, every cook and every person has his/her own way of cooking it and his/her own secret ingredient
3. The best match for Sugo are Tagliatelle or Penne. Spaghetti with Ragu is not a perfect match in Italy.
4. The basics of Ragu is Battuto, i.e. a mixture of finely chopped vegetables, plus Beef minced meat and tomatoes.
5. No spices are added to the Ragu, i.e. Basil, Rosemary, etc.

So let’s start from the very beginning, i.e. Battuto. This word in Italian literally means “Beaten” but in culinary terms its is a mixture of finely chopped mixture of vegetables and herbs that are a base for a recipe. In case of Ragu the Battuto is prepared with what we call “Odori”, i.e. onion, celery, carrot and parsley. Odori literally means Smells and I guess that this word is used because they provide aroma to the dish you are cooking.
In the vegetables section of main supermarkets in Italy you will find bags of “Odori”, ready to be used for your ragu. The same are used also for Lesso .
So going back to our Ragu, consider for 500g of minced meat 1 large onion, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery and a handful of parsley. Ideally you should use a chopping knife and lots of patience. I use the food processor, being careful not to overdo with it as it might get pulp like, but you want it to preserve its texture. Once ready transfer everything in a large pan (ideally a terracotta pan) and add plenty of extra virgin olive oil. Cook gently until very very very soften. This might take around 30 min, and you have to carefully check that the battuto cooks without sticking to the bottom or burning.
Once cooked raise the heat and add the salted minced meat and let the meat fry for 10-15 until the meat is thoroughly cooked. The meat should release all the juices into the pan. To enhance the flavor of your ragu you can add some finely chopped dry porcini mushrooms (previously wetted) together with the water using for wetting or a sausage, or a finely chopped chicken or rabbit liver. I do not like wine, but I know of people that add a glass of red Tuscan wine as well.
Once the meat is cooked add a can of chopped tomatoes and leave it to cook for 1h at least. Check that it does not burn or sticks to the bottom. Adjust with salt and pepper and it’s done!
Enjoy with tagliatelle and plenty of Parmigiano Reggiano!

Tagliatelle, Pappardelle, etc. Make your own pasta

Although not proper Tuscan, fresh hand-made pasta is thoroughly available in Tuscan restaurants. I am lucky. My grandma comes from Emilia region, the homeland of fresh pasta and I had an excellent teacher. I do not have much time, but I love making pasta for guests. It tastes differently, it is fun and it is not that effort at the end. The recipe is 1 egg every 100 g of flour. That’s it. So for 4 people make at least 6 eggs and 600 g of flour. My grandma adds also one spoon of extravirgin olive oil. I usually do but do not really know whenever it is fundamental! Have flour available as you need during the process! I will describe you first the proper way of doing and the way I do. Probably not orthodox, but definitively time saving! In both cases you need clean hands, a wooden top surface, plenty of flour (in addition to the recipe one) and a noodle machine.

Proper way

Put the flour on the wooden surface making a mountain like shape. Create a volcano by making a crater in the middle of that. Put one after the other the eggs in the volcano (open of course) and then with a fork beat the eggs by scraping some flour from the walls of the volcano but being careful not to create an opening as the egg lava will start to flow like hell and will make your kitchen look a little messy. If you do it properly you will get a dough of soft consistency that you have to further work with the flour in order to get it very hard. This process can be very energetic as the dough will get harder and harder. Be aware that when the dough is too soft it will be very difficult for you to handle your pasta afterwards, as it will stick to everything. Do not try to make the dough too smooth. A trick is to leave it for one hour in the fridge and it will get better and better.

My way.

Take a food processor and put the flour and the eggs in it. For a 2L container, make slots of 300g and 3 eggs. Switch on at the maximum speed until you have a brittle mixture. Pour in a wooden surface and work into a dough. It will be very easy and the results will be perfect!


In both cases leave the dough for 1h minimum in the fridge in a metal or ceramic container covered with a dish Make sure that the dough is not loose in the container, so that the latter just fits right. I do not know why it should be like that, my grandma said. One thing that you have to be careful about is that the dough does not dry out. It has to be always moist. In Florence the air is humid, so this is not a big issue. But here in Switzerland it can be a race against time to make your tagliatelle.

The noodle machine:

Don’t be scared, it does not bite. Follow the instructions and firmly fix it at the table. Make sure that you have plenty of flour and clean kitchen towels around you to go through the pasta production. Get familiar with the rolling sizes

Cut a bit of dough (around the size of a mobile phone) and roll it at the thicker size. Fold it and pass it again. Repeat this step until you have a smooth dough. Once this is done pass it at a thinner size until you reach the thinnest. You do not have to go through one measure at the time, just make a couple of steps from the thickest to the thinner. If it gets too long cut in two and process one at the time. When ready place the rolled dough on a kitchen towel and leave it to dry out a bit.

If the dough was properly done, you will not have problems in these steps. If it is too dry it will get brittle and it will separate during the rolling. Work it again with a bit of water and leave it to rest for 10 min before trying again. If it is too soft (wet) then it sticks everywhere. Once you have rolled it, smear plenty of flour on both sides before going to the next step.

Your noodle machine will have a tagliatelle cutting tool. Use it to create your own tagliatelle.

Cook your tagliatelle in plenty of salted hot water and… enjoy with your favourite sauce.

The recipe for the ragu (i.e. Bolognese sauce) will follow.

Baccalà alla Livornese (Leghourn-style cod)

Nowadays you can eat fish everywhere. Probably you do not know that, but the best place to have some fresh fish in Italy is Milan, even if it is far away from the sea. The reason is that it hosts one of the biggest fish markets in Europe, and here is where all the fish is collected and handled before it reaches your table.
But it was not like this in the past. As it was impossible to keep fresh the fish during transportation from the coast to the internal areas, someone living in Florence had to rely on fresh water fish or processed (salted or dried) fish. Going back to the Renaissance period, many villas of that time had huge tanks to store fish. Villa la Petraia and Villa di Castello in Florence are an example of this as you can see from the picture that I enclose here and that reproduces Villa di Castello as it was in the past.
Salted anchovies were a good example of the kind of fish that was consumed in Florence in the past. You can find them as ingredient in many dishes, crostini and salsa verde for example. I have already given a recipe for these in this blog. However a cheap source of protein in the past were for sure the products coming from North Atlantic, in particular Herrings and Cod. Funny enough, nowadays they are a very expensive alternative to the fresh and cheap Sea Basses that come from the fish farms.
So coming to cod there are two kinds, the Baccala’ (salted) and Stoccafisso (dry). In both case their name comes from German and means fish in a stick. The meaning that I have given to the two words is how we use it in Florence, but I might be wrong. In Florence we typically have Baccala’, the salted version. Local food shops (good old times when there was one in every corner… now they have disappeared!) used to sell it on Fridays, when the Catholic tradition prohibits the consumption of meat. I have never understood why if you are not supposed to eat meat you can have fish instead, but this is my personal consideration.  The shops used to start preparing it on Thursday. The preparation involves wetting (re-hydrating) and removing the excess salt. For this reason they put the baccala’ in a special tank with continous flow of water. If you buy the salted version, just put it in water and change the water every 30 min. That should do the job. It might take one day before the fish is ready.
Remove the bones, the skin , and cut the fish in stripes. Cover with plenty of flour and fry the cod in oil (peanuts oil would do the job). In a separate pan fry some garlic, capers and chilli peppers in some olive oil. Once the garlic turns golden, add the tomato sauce and leave it cooking for a few minutes. Before serving briefly cook the cod in the sauce and serve hot with plenty of chopped parsley on top of the fish. It is delicious. In this way you can prepare also red mullets, which are a typical fish of Leghourn. In this case clean the fish (remove the inside and grate off the sloughs), cover in flour, fry and then put in the sauce. They are delicious!!!!