Italian Sausage Ragu with Tagliatelle
Not your Nona's Ragu.
Jared's family is Italian on his father's side, and he has fond memories of his late Grandmother Doretta's sauce simmering on the stove all day. Doretta was from a coastal town in Italy named Trieste, near the then Yugoslav border.
This is not her recipe and I honestly don't think anyone has any of her recipes, because like all good Italian Nonas (grandmothers), I don't think she shared them. Thankfully for all of us, my family heritage hails mostly from the British Isles, which are not known for their food anyway. Therefore I have sworn no childhood allegiance to safeguarding recipes.
This recipe comes from my own adaptations of several recipes I've tried over the years, including one from Giada De Laurentiis and one I memorized from a Nona I made ragu with on her farm during our most recent trip to Italy. Unsurprisingly, her recipe was not as good as most, because she is smartly keeping her family secrets. But, the basics are the same. (Coming soon - a truly mind blowing experience this woman taught me with mint and zucchini).
Americans will be surprised to learn that most authentic Italian sausage ragus include carrots and do NOT include garlic. Trust it. It's better this way despite everything I know and love about garlic. The carrots add an earthy sweetness that helps keep the sauce chunky while absorbing the flavors of the wine and herbs. You can make your own pasta, buy it fresh, or just boil it from dried. I'm a sucker for fresh pasta. Kitchen-Aide has several really good pasta roller attachments you can use on your mixer that will speed up the rolling process and cut your pasta for you, but none of that is needed here necessarily. If you are making your own, I'll add instructions for that below. This recipe serves approximately 4 hungry people. I highly recommend a bottle or two of a red Bordeaux for this as well.
Ultimately, you want this to be a thick sauce that clings to the pasta. And remember The Rule - always finish your pasta in the sauce and always add cheese to the pasta. The cheese sticks to the pasta; the sauce sticks to the cheese.
Ready? Let's go.
Ingredients:
For the Sauce:
1 lb ground Italian sausage. I really like the sage sausage from Hollow Oak Farm because it has a nice earthy base to it that makes everything feel richer and fancier than it is.
1 28 oz. can tomato sauce or whole roasted tomatoes. I use the Organico Bello whole San Marzanos. The tomatoes cook down into a thick sauce without overreducing.
1 baby onion (or half of a regular onion). I prefer yelllow onions, and this week's baby onions from Elmwood Stock Farm are just excellent.
1 medium carrot
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken bone broth (unsalted if you can get it). I use Pacific Foods Organic Unsalted Chicken Bone Broth, which I order by the case from Amazon.
Parmesan Rind - at least a square inch's worth.
1 tbsp dried oregano
For the Pasta (If you're making it from scratch)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup semolina flour
3 eggs + 2 egg yolks
1 tsp salt
For Finishing
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Step 1: Make the sauce.
Brown the sausage on medium in a large saucepan or very large skillet.
While the meat is browning, finely chop the onion and carrot and add to the pan.
Once the sausage is browned and there are enough brown bits sticking to the pan to merit a good deglazing, pour in the wine, then the broth, then the tomatoes or tomato sauce. Stir, add the oregano and Parmesan rind, stir again, and turn down the heat to simmer.
This is best if you cook is down low and slow for several hours, but technically, you can eat this as soon as the sauce reduces enough that the alcohol has cooked out and the flavors are balanced, around 45 minutes. I usually start mine after I get home from the farmer's market on Saturday mornings around 10/11 a.m. and serve it around 6 p.m. that evening. Add salt to taste, but you probably won't need much, especially because you're going to add salted pasta water to the mix before serving.
Step 2: Make the Pasta (Optional)
Combine the flours and salt until evenly distributed throughout.
Make a pit in the center of the flour mixture and add the eggs. Slowly adding the flour mixture into the eggs with your hands, begin kneading until everything is incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth on the exterior. This might take about 10 minutes or so. You can also do this with your stand up mixer in about 2 minutes, but you'll need to knead the dough a bit to make sure the glutens develop.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let it rest for 30 minutes at room temperature (at least). You can also pop this in the refrigerator to roll out later but do it within the next 24 hours.
Once the dough has rested, you can roll it out with a rolling pin or pasta roller. Again, I use the Kitchen-Aide mixer attachment. For this recipe, I roll the dough to a level 5. It should be thick enough to have some chew to it without being so thick it feels like a workout eating it.
Once you roll the dough out - do it in sections! - it's time to cut the pasta. You can use the attachment if you have one that does that, but for this recipe, I almost prefer to cut it myself. Take the dough, fold it over on itself a few times, and then cut strips approximately 1/4 inches wide.
Step 3: Put it together.
Start a large pot of water on high heat. Add a tablespoon of salt.
If you're cooking fresh pasta, boil it for 3-4 minutes for al dente (5-6 if you want it to be soft like my husband prefers). If you're cooking from dry, follow the package directions, usually around 8-12 minutes. You can test throughout by grabbing a strand with a tong and tasting the end of it.
Remove the pasta with tongs once it's ready and put directly into the sauce. Add 1/4 cup pasta water to the sauce along with the pasta.
Sprinkle half of the Parmesan cheese directly onto the pasta before mixing it into the sauce.
With the tongs, turn the pasta with cheese around in the sauce to fully coat it and leave it there for a full minute.
Plate, then add the remaining Parmesan and finish with the parsley. I like to add a sprinkle of black pepper at this point too, but that's a matter of personal preference.
Bon Appetit!