I’m almost always in the mood for pasta, especially when I’m cooking for a crowd. But I do get a bit tired of the same old dishes so it was time to experiment again. I can’t believe I haven’t done this before. I’ve made a similar meat sauce for Polenta Lasagna but hadn’t thought about repeating it with pasta.
I know some Bolognese recipes call for more tomato but I decided to use just a bit of paste instead. Feel free to improvise and add whatever strikes your fancy.
As usual on a Friday night, I was cooking for a crowd. It’ll be easy enough to cut back a bit on the ingredients and use only one pound of pasta.
- Ground Beef, 1 pound
- Ground Pork, 1 pound
- Pancetta, 1/3 pound
- Celery, 3 or 4 ribs
- Carrots, 3 or 4
- Yellow Onion, 1
- Garlic, 5 or 6 cloves
- Tomato Paste, 2 tablespoons
- Rosemary, 1 tablespoon fresh snipped
- Thyme, 1 or 2 sprigs
- Italian Parsley, 1/4 cup snipped
- Butter, 1/2 stick or so
- White Wine, 1 cup
- Half and Half, 1 cup
- Rigatoni or Penne, 2 lbs
Snip the herbs. Dice the pancetta. Mince the garlic and onion. Chop the celery and carrot.
In a large saute pan, melt the butter until it starts to bubble and brown. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring often, until it’s lightly browned.
Add the beef and pork and cook over medium high heat until it’s well browned.
Add the onion, garlic, celery and carrot. Reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking until the vegetables begin to soften.
Stir in the tomato paste.
Add the wine, reduce the heat and let it simmer for a while.
Add the parsley and stir it in until it’s nice and wilted.
Add the cream and let it simmer for a bit longer over low heat.
While it’s simmering, boil the pasta. I used Rigatoni because it’s what I had in the pantry. Penne would be just as good.
Drain the pasta and dump it into the saute pan with the sauce. Stir until it’s well-coated.
Serve it up with plenty of grated Parmesan or Asiago on the side. Enjoy!
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Pour the entire bottle of wine into a small heavy saucepan along with a thyme sprig or two and bring it to a low boil. Continue simmering until it’s reduced to just about a cup.
Slice the shallots and mince the garlic.
Season the beef with salt and pepper.
In a large saute pan set over medium-high, melt half the butter until it begins to bubble and brown. Add the beef. Once it’s well browned on the bottom and comes up easily, turn it over.
Add the garlic, shallots and a couple of thyme sprigs and spread it all around and in between the steaks.
Reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking until the beef is done to your liking. You can turn it once or twice.
Remove the steak to a platter and keep it warm. Add the wine to the saute pan, scraping up all the stuck goodness from the bottom. Stir until it’s reduced a little more.
Turn off the heat and add the remaining half stick of butter. Stir it in until it’s melted.
Pour the sauce over the steaks.
Garnish with thyme and serve immediately. Enjoy!