My Ragu Bolognese

Ah, the meat sauce, the Sunday Gravy… So many variations and so much debate over what is a proper Ragu Bolognese. In fact, there is an official designation protected by the Italian Academy of Cuisine. Well, this is America and we often stretch things, don’t we? You can even play around with my play around of a recipe. I suggest that this sauce is a great way to use up extra scraps of meat and bones that you have lying around. Here goes!

1) Make a sofrito or mirepoix which is 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks and 1-2 onions, diced. Cook slowly in a fat of your choice, I like to use diced pancetta or bacon. Make sure it is soft and translucent. Add a small can of tomato paste and cook for a few minutes.

2) Add 1-2 cups of wine, and cook down a bit to concentrate. Now add 1-2 pounds of meat. Most people will use ground beef or a meatloaf mix here. Cook down a bit to where there is little liquid left in the pot. What about seasonings? I omit the salt and pepper until the end as I want to make a determination then.

3) Add 2 28oz cans of San Marzano or plum, whole and peeled tomatoes to the pot. I use a potato masher to crush them a bit. My secret ingredient is to add a few beef bones and 1-2 cups of beef or chicken stock.

4) Simmer uncovered for about 2-4 hours. The longer the better, TRUST ME!!! The sauce will concentrate beautifully over that time. Serve with penne, ziti or shorter pastas.

Eat.Drink.Savor.

Dutch Oven Pork Loin Roast

Not typically part of my rotation, but wanted to share another easy recipe. I normally roast my loin on a roasting rack set in a pan. I think this adds a bit more of tenderness vs. the “bark” of the open rack method. This recipe is not modified at all and comes straight from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Amazing that this recipe still works and it is 60 years old. You must have a fireproof and oven-safe pot (Dutch Oven) with cover for this recipe or you will need to improvise. For brevity, I have reworked it a bit here:

1) 3 # boneless pork loin. It calls for a marinade but I did my typical 48 hour dry brine of salt, pepper and Adobo.

2) In a Dutch oven large enough (I put mine in a 4 1/2 quart Dutch oven), heat 4 TBSP of fat, lard or oil. You are now going to brown all sides of the loin. A few minutes all over to create a crust.

3) Take pork out and set aside. Leave 2 TBSPs of fat left in the pot. If needed add butter. Put in 1 sliced onion, 1 sliced carrot, 2 cloves of garlic (I omitted it), and some herbs (parsley, thyme sprigs, bay leaf). Cook for 5 minutes.

4) Add the pork back in pot and put cover on. Put in a 325 degree oven and cook until the meat registers 145 degrees. I lowered mine to 300 degrees as I wanted to give myself some time for other things. The 3 lb should take 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Mine was done in 1 hr 30 minutes. I do recommend that you check on it prior to that point.

4) Take out pork and put on a carving board to rest for at least 15-20 minutes. Take out the vegetables and set aside too. Resting the meat is so important as all the juices will need time to redistribute through the meat. Also, there will be carryover cooking and the internal temp will rise 5-10 degrees getting above the USDA recommended temperature. Now, this is up to you but you can make a gravy out of those drippings in the pot.

5) Optional: Leave about 1-2 TBSP of fat in the pot. Take 1/2 C. of wine and simmer in the pot, scraping up all those wonderful bits on the bottom. If you are short a little liquid, add some chicken stock.

Eat.Drink.Savor.

Making your own Smoked Bacon

A recipe that I used for many years and actually have used the same cure for other types of meats. The cure works fantastic for fresh ham. The original recipe was courtesy of In the Charcuterie by Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller. They also run a shop in San Francisco and Napa called The Fatted Calf. I am a big fan as you can tell. Not many ingredients but still I modified it..

1) 8 lb skinless pork belly. You don’t have to use all of the cure if you don’t have that much pork belly. I cut the pork belly into equally sized squares that can fit in a baking dish.

2) Cure. 1 lb of brown sugar (I use dark), 12 ounces of fine sea salt (I use ground up kosher), 1 TBSP Curing Salt #1, 1 TBSP cayenne and 1 TBSP freshly ground black pepper. Mix all ingredients well in a bowl. The curing salt can be found online. The salt acts as a preservative and protection against bacteria while the meat is curing.

3) In your baking dish, put down a layer of the cure. Put one of your belly portions on it, meat side down. Rub the cure all over the sides and top. Put a belly on top of this, meat side down and repeat. Put in fridge. I don’t cover but you can if your fridge is full of other odiferous foods.

4) Next day, pour out any liquid in the dish and swap the belly portions around. Put on any additional cure on thin spots. Return to fridge and repeat. Typically by the 3rd day, there isn’t much liquid left. I pull it off by the 3rd day regardless. You can experiment with longer cure times but it may get too salty.

5) Rinse off all cure from the bellies. Pat dry. Get your smoker going and smoke the bellies until they read 140 - 150 degrees internal temperature. Let cool and either keep in slab form or slice. I like to let the bellies cool overnight and use the slicer the next day. I’ll often have a portion that is sliced and a portion that remains in slab form. Some will remain in the fridge and some will be in the freezer. With the curing salt, your bacon won’t spoil until after 3-4 weeks in the fridge and after 6 months in the freezer.

Options: 1) I will do a mix of maple syrup and brown sugar along with a shot of rum. 2) Different kinds of sea salt 3) Applewood, cherrywood or pecan for the smoker 4) Play with an alternative spice vs. cayenne 5) Throw in some herb springs on the smoker fire

Eat.Drink.Savor.

My Base Meat Lasagna

My Italian cuisine and cooking skills are evolving. I am not of Italian descent and only have been exposed to this great food through friends. I have worked with this recipe of Emeril’s over the years. When I would cook food for our family vacations ahead of time, I wanted something that could be frozen and make plenty of leftovers. I also wanted a recipe where I didn’t have to precook the noodles. Warning! Some Italians will scoff at the use of ricotta here.. so be warned.. I will have another version up without it. This recipe yields 12-16 servings depending on your guests. Here is my version after many modifications.

1) In a bowl, mix 1 1/2 C. ricotta, 6 ounces grated Provolone, Mozzarella and Pecorino-Romano, an egg, 1/4 C. half/half (or milk), 1 TBSP minced basil/thyme/oregano, 1-2 TBSP chopped garlic. In reserve, have 1 1/2 lb of grated Parmesan and a package of lasagna noodles ready.

2) Meat Sauce. You can make your own but for ease of use, buy quality pasta sauce with meat. If you want to jack it up, brown a pound of meat (beef/pork/lamb etc.) I’d have enough sauce for about 6-8 cups. If you have extra, you can use it elsewhere.

3) Assembly. In a deep baking dish/lasagna pan, spread about 2 cups of sauce on the bottom. Sprinkle a quarter of the parmesan on. Cover this layer with dried lasagna noodles. Repeat. You’ll likely have 3-4 layers. The last layer is sauce unless you want it to be cheese but it may burn, so watch it.

4) Cook in a 350 degree oven 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let cool about 10 minutes, minimum before serving.

Nosh Options: You can add more cheese into the mixture but it may be overkill. For the meat sauce, you can do a meatloaf mix for the meat. A homemade Ragu’ Bolognese is highly recommended for tremendous flavor.

Eat.Drink.Savor.

Crispy Pork Belly

Here is a cut that often is overlooked as a standalone dish: Pork Belly. The belly is commonly used for bacon and/or pancetta and most butchers will cut the pork belly with that in mind; no skin. If you are fortunate to find skin-on pork belly, grab it! You can make more of a gourmet dish, porchetta where you wrap a belly around a tenderloin, add spices and tie it up like a nice roast. But we believe in simplicity here. We can gourmet some other time.

1) 2-4 pound skin-on pork belly. If you can find a bigger one, by all means grab it. Save one half for bacon or other uses. You can cook a larger belly but you run into real estate challenges with your oven or pan.

2) Crosshatch with a knife (diamond pattern) the skin. Be careful to cut only the skin and the fat. The goal here is to give the fat ample ways to render out during the cook. Season as you see fit, I keep it simple with maybe a little salt, pepper, dry mustard and thyme. You can dry brine this too if you have the time.

3) Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Low and slow here is the operative word. That belly has a ton of fat (and flavor) and you have to give it time to render out. No need to roll the belly into a roast. You can keep it flat, it may cook unevenly but it really doesn’t matter.

4) Put in a deep roasting pan with a rack. Cook for about 2-3 hours. Check for an internal temp (make sure you are testing the meat and not the fat) for close to 200 degrees and the meat is fork tender. Most of the fat should have rendered and is in bottom of the pan.

4) Take roasting pan out of the oven. Remove rack with belly on it and put it on a new roasting pan. Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees. Put belly back in the oven and cook it for about 15-20 minutes or until your desired crispiness. If you see it burning but need more time, put on some foil. Take out and rest for minimum of 20 minutes.

5) Depending on tenderness, you can slice and serve or pull it into shreds. Serve with the crispy skin.

This is pork heaven!!

Eat.Drink.Savor.

Smoked Pulled Pork - An Easy Version

I love Pulled Pork! It has become a staple in our house and moreso during the summer when I can lay back and enjoy the outdoors. The issue with Pulled Pork is that it takes forever to cook. As it is big hunk of meat of at least 5-10 pounds and full of connective tissue, fat and tendons, it has be cooked low and slow or it will not be good. How do I tackle this if I am pressed for time? Cook it overnight!! What? Yup! Takes some advance planning but it works. Here is my secret approach:

1) Dry Brine or season your pulled pork how you like it. Once ready to cook AND around 7 or 8pm, I put it on my smoker (if you don’t have one, you can use your grill) for about 3 hours OR until the pork reads 140 degrees internal temp. Why? Most meat can’t absorb any more smoke after it hits that temperature. After that temperature, your smoker doesn’t really add any more flavor and it turns into an oven. What if you want to use your smoker or grill? You can but you have to tend it…but if that is what you want to do, please wrap your pork in foil and add a bit of liquid (1/2 cup of juice, broth etc.) and keep an eye on it but…

2) I put my pork in a deep roasting pan, add my liquid, say beer, wine, cider etc., cover with foil tightly and put in a 225 degree oven. Make sure your oven is relatively clean and you have working fire detectors of course.

3) Go to Bed! Wake up to a house smelling of pork… MMM! It should be falling apart but not mushy. The low temp of 225 degrees gives you that buffer. I oft times put it at 200 degrees if my cook will exceed 8 hours in the oven. Most pulled pork is done around 195-205 degrees internal temperature.

That’s it! Really? Yes! I have prepared pulled pork like this for many years and it works like a charm.