Before I dive into the Field of Greens cookbook (read: it will never happen), I thought I’d take a stab at posting some pics of a dinner I cooked for my dad last week. My dad likes to eat almost anything. It’s always great to cook for people who will eat anything because that means one is never pressured to be the best at anything. And, try as I might, I am a B average cook at best. Maybe even a C average. This isn’t to say that I’m a bad cook (well, erm) but just that there are so many better cooks out there, and when it comes to food blogging — I have pretty much sucked at it.
One thing that is hard to screw up is authentic ragu. I learned how to make it on my first trip to Italy (yeah, the one where I got knocked up – maybe Ragu is the reason why). Emma’s father Luca makes the best Ragu. In fact, he is the son of two great chefs, his mother and his dearly departed father. I think I made it clear that we broke up upon my return to the states and I have raised Emma as a single parent. Hard. Not as hard as having more than one kid and doing it alone, but it is hard anyway.
Luca’s mother cooks the best food I have ever had – and that includes all of the great restaurants in Italy and France. She once made a tomato sauce using cherry tomatoes that blew my mother fucking mind.
Anyway, so the reason I made this Ragu was because I still had some left over ground meat that my mother gave me – it is organic, farm-raised beef that belonged to a friend of hers. Ground beef – there are lots of things to do with ground beef – burgers, tacos, shepherd’s pie…but ragu has the benefit of tomato sauce, which is very good for you. And my dad tends to like that kind of stuff since my grandmother used to make him great meals, including spaghetti and meatballs.
Anyway, so it’s easy to make ragu but you have to be patient. There are lots of different variations – some people use milk, some use nutmeg, some use just onions, or garlic and onions. Here is how I did it.
1 lb of ground beef
Two cans of crushed tomatoes
1 onion
1 head of garlic
nutmeg
salt & pepper
basil
I don’t think basil is used to make traditional ragu, but mine needed it at the end. I think that next time I will use a different combination of tomato — maybe some sauce, some paste. Mine didn’t have that great flavor like Luca’s did this time. I have made it better in the past.
Here’s the thing. You brown the onions, then brown the meat. Add some grated nutmeg if you want. Here is where I added the garlic, which is optional. You then add the tomato sauce (whatever combo you decide) and here’s is the key – you simmer it on low for at least two hours. Seriously. When it’s done, the tomato sauce had reduced to the most delicious, concentrated stuff you’ve ever tasted. And the thing is, it coats the pasta because it is oily and concentrated at the same time. So it doesn’t slip off the noodles, but rather gently coats them.
Salt the noodle water.
By the way, I started off the meal with roasted shrimp to be eaten with cocktail sauce — olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper — a squeeze of lemon. Roast for about ten minutes or so until just pink. I think I cooked it at 350. Pictured above.
For dessert for my dad I made some blueberry compote. It was all quite good. Not perfect, but good enough.
