Going for Baroque!

Baroque Ragu

Why?

Now that the weather is getting cooler and it’s time to eat heartier food, I’m planning to make a variety of ragùs. They are a perfect fix for our cold, damp, Mid-Atlantic winters. I’ve never made these rich meat-based Italian sauces before so I decided to start with a classic one.

What?

I turned to my The Splendid Table cookbook. It concentrates on food from the “Heartland of Northern Italy” and has several ragù recipes (all of which I want to try in the next few months). For my premier sauce I selected a Baroque Ragù. With four different meats plus sausage, pancetta, and cream, this sauce served over pasta with some grated Parmesan will surely melt any blizzard!

This is definitely a make-it-on-the-weekend dish as the recipe spans two full pages. One short cut I took was to use a “meat loaf” mix of ground pork, beef, and veal rather than chopping my own (even in the food processor that takes time). Also I got my chopped vegetables from the salad bar at the grocery store. I forgot to by the pancetta, so I substituted bacon. As well I used a combination of store bought beef and chicken stock as apposed to homemade as the recipe calls for.

How Much?

Unfortunately, I didn’t keep all my receipts together so I can not give you a cost break down for the meal, but as you can imagine with all of the meat it wasn’t cheap. However, it made a very hearty dinner for two and an additional 4 – 5 moderately sized lunches.

The Recipe: