Spaghetti Ragu

After the first homemade pasta trial I had to leave town for a week.  Not only did I have to leave my new wife, but I had to leave my leftovers as well!  I finally was able to make round two when I got home.  We decided to make a somewhat classic spaghetti ragu, except I opted to make a half whole wheat pasta this time around.  

The ragu is pretty straight forward and is a great dish for a Sunday since you need about an hour and a half to make the sauce.  For the ragu, you will need:

6 tablespoons of olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 teaspoon of minced fresh rosemary

3/4 lb of ground beef

1/2 cup of dry red wine

3 tablespoons of tomato paste

2 1/2 cups of canned whole plum tomatoes

salt and pepper

I used the Dutch oven to make the ragu, it really is the perfect pot for simmering.  Warm the oil over medium-low heat.  Then add the onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and rosemary.  Cook for about 10 minutes or until the veggies are soft.  Add the beef and cook for another 10 minutes until it's browned. 

                           

 Add the wine and tomato paste, cook, stirring occasionally until the wine evaporates slightly, about 5 minutes at the most.  Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover partially and simmer for an hour until the ragu is thick and aromatic.  I recommend plenty of taste tests by dipping bread into the sauce...

                                

While the sauce simmers, you have plenty of time to work on the pasta.  For some reason, unlike all white pasta, whole wheat pasta does not need time for the dough to rest.  For the light (half) whole wheat pasta (half recipe):

1 1/4 cups sifted whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sifted unbleached flour

2 large eggs

1 tbs water

1/4 tsp salt

Combine all of the ingredients in the mixer bowl and mix with the flat beater on speed 2 for 30 seconds.  Swap in the dough hook and knead for 2 minutes on speed 2.  

Remove dough from mixer bowl and had knead for a few minutes.  Make sure to have a well floured surface.

Divide the dough into 4 sections and roll out each section to about 1 cm in thickness.  Then the fun part of rolling the dough through the pasta press to desired thickness, and finally cutting with the spaghetti cutter.

As the finished pasta comes out of the press, make sure to flour the pile and separate so it doesn't stick.

Personally, I have a hard time eating a delicious bowl of pasta without garlic bread.  For super easy garlic bread, just preheat the oven to 400.  Slice up some bread and drizzle olive oil on top.  I like to to use the rack so that the bread toasts evenly on both sides.  Toast in oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  When bread comes out of the oven, rub with a clove of garlic.  Seriously, it's super easy and has great garlic flavor.  

Finally, to finish the pasta just through the noodles into boiling water for a few minutes until cooked al dente, then mix with sauce.  I always like to garnish the pasta with fresh parsley and parmesan cheese.  It adds not only great flavor but color as well.

Not a bad Sunday dinner at the Lederman House.  The flowers on the table are not too common place, but last Friday marked 3 years from the day I met the wife.  I was stuck in Denver and decided to totally embarrass her with flowers sent to her office.  I thought that we had to somehow celebrate the phasing out of the original anniversary date.