Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [100]
5. Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter, and serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side.
Ahead-of-time note If you cannot watch the sauce for a 3- to 4-hour stretch, you can turn off the heat whenever you need to leave, and resume cooking later on, as long as you complete the sauce within the same day. Once done, you can refrigerate the sauce in a tightly sealed container for 3 days, or you can freeze it. Before tossing with pasta, reheat it, letting it simmer for 15 minutes and stirring it once or twice.
Variation of Ragù with Pork
Pork is an important part of Bologna’s culture, its economy, and the cuisine, and many cooks add some pork to make their ragù tastier. Use 1 part ground pork, preferably from the neck or Boston butt, to 2 parts beef, and make the meat sauce exactly as described in the basic recipe above.
Chicken Liver Sauce
For 4 to 6 servings
½ pound fresh chicken livers
2 tablespoons chopped shallot OR onion
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon garlic chopped very fine
3 tablespoons diced pancetta OR prosciutto
4 to 5 whole sage leaves
¼ pound ground beef chuck
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 teaspoon tomato paste, dissolved in ¼ cup dry white vermouth
1¼ pounds homemade pasta
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese at the table
Recommended pasta Here we have a magnificent sauce for pappardelle, the eye- and mouth-filling homemade broad noodles. It can also be combined with the Molded Parmesan Risotto with Chicken Liver Sauce.
1. Remove any greenish spots and particles of fat from the chicken livers, rinse them in cold water, cut each liver into 3 or 4 pieces, and pat them thoroughly dry with paper towels.
2. Put the shallot or onion in a saucepan or small sauté pan together with the oil and butter; turn on the heat to medium. Cook and stir the shallot or onion until it becomes translucent. Add the chopped garlic and cook it briefly, not long enough to become colored, then add the diced pancetta or prosciutto, and the sage. Stir well, cooking for about a minute or less, then add the ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork and cook it until it has lost its raw, red color.
3. Add the cut-up chicken livers, turn the heat up to medium high, stir thoroughly, and cook briefly, just until the livers have lost their raw, red color.
4. Add the tomato paste and vermouth mixture, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring from time to time. Taste and correct for salt.
5. Turn out the entire contents of the pan over cooked drained pasta, toss well, coating all the strands, and serve at once with grated Parmesan on the side.
Special Pasta Dishes
Tortellini with Meat and Cheese Filling
About 200 tortellini
FOR THE STUFFING
¼ pound pork, preferably from the neck OR Boston butt
6 ounces boned, skinless chicken breast
2 tablespoons butter
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
3 tablespoons mortadella chopped very fine
1¼ cups fresh ricotta
1 egg yolk
1 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Whole nutmeg
FOR THE PASTA
Homemade yellow pasta dough, made as directed by the machine method, OR by the hand-rolled method, using 4 large eggs, approximately 2 cups unbleached flour, and 1 tablespoon milk
Recommended sauce The traditional way of serving tortellini is in broth, calculating about 2½ quarts homemade meat broth for cooking and serving 100 tortellini, approximately 6 portions. Not as traditional, but very good all the same is Cream and Butter Sauce, or Tomato Sauce with Heavy Cream, or Bolognese Meat Sauce. Calculate about 2 dozen tortellini per person when serving them with sauce.