It is no secret that here at Science in the Kitchen Laboratories, we are big fans of Alton Brown’s cooking (sometimes lovingly referred to as AB. However, when we wanted to create a Ragu, we felt a 5.5 hour ordeal after a long Tuesday was a little, labor intensive and decided that it was time to forage the Internet for an alternative. Below you will find our results lovingly recorded for you to repeat the experiment.
Ingredients:
1 cup chopped ham
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup coarsely chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 pound chicken livers*
1 1/2 pound lean ground pork
1/2 cup white wine **
2 cups beef stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
2 packages fresh noodles
* (SitK: We tweaked the recipe and subbed ground beef for chicken livers).
** (Note: For our white of the night, we used a Ferrari Carano Chardonnay).
Preparation:
1. Combine the ham, onions, carrots and celery on a cutting board and chop into very small pieces (Note: Microscopic is the word that should be used here). In a large skillet, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. Add ham mixture and saute, stirring often, for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer to a heavy large saucepan.
2. In same skillet, heat olive oil and lightly brown beef and pork over medium heat, stirring constantly to break up any lumps. Pour in the wine, increase the heat and boil briskly, still stirring constantly, until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Add ground meat mixture to ham mixture in saucepan. Stir in the stock and tomato paste. Bring all to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Cook pasta according to package instructions. A few minutes before serving, stir in the cream and let it heat through. Season sauce with nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
Lab Results:
In the end we felt like there needed to be more tomato flavor worked into the sauce. On top of that, the sauce definitely needed to be thicker with more veggies and less meat (as can be seen in the plating picture). However, we are proud to say that we have attempted a capital “S” sauce and that more extensive cooking shall occur in the future. Dig in!
– S, I