I remember his ‘rustic’ approach to cooking from his teevee show back in the day, which is apparent in the instructions to “cut the onion into chunks, and the carrot & celery into thick slices,” (I may have taken the thiccc part too literal, as the veg def did not turn soft after just 5 minutes of sautéing. Surprisingly, he had you finely mince the garlic….
I doubled the amounts of everything except for the tomatoes, as the smallest chuck roast I could find was twice the weight given in the recipe. That also meant using up an entire bottle of a $16.99 Cab Sauv someone gifted us, as I had no Chianti inda house.
Of course, a whole bottle of wine vs. 2 cups also didn’t reduce in just 15 min — more like 45 for a slight reduction, so I’m doubly glad I started this totally unfussy, easy-peasy recipe mid-afternoon
I didn’t add butter or parm to the pappardelle, as I didn’t think they needed extra fat, given how much the chuck released while cooking, making it already a very rich dish. The grated Parm Reg went on top where it belongs.
Would I make it again? Probably not. We both found the rosemary/orange zest topping overpowering what turned out to be a fairly bland meat sauce, so we’d likely leave it off next time we have the STOL. Not worth the time, TBH
Yes, I wouldn’t like rosemary here. Have you made Hazan’s Bolognese? I’m making it for a dinner gettogether in December but I always add garlic, fresh basil, dried basil, dried oregano. I’ll make fresh fettucine to go with it. Can’t wait.
If the ragú had had the depth and beefiness one would expect after almost 4 hrs in the oven, I think this twist on gremolata might work, but it just tasted like bland tomato sauce with shredded beef & smashed carrots
something like this probably - Ive had it with cod cakes in Nantucket many years ago and seen it elsewhere occasionally. Its very soothing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh3PNtXVCvw
I think the parmesan would have helped a bit as, looking over the ingredients list, there is no real source of umami in the recipe. You might want to add some umami to it (even soy sauce or sprinkle of msg would help)
If I’d not followed this recipe, you bet your sweet bippy there woulda been umami elements — e.g. melted anchovies to start the party off, and certainly no fucking carrots that only added to the bland sweet-ish note.
There was parm on top. It couldn’t save the sauce, and I was not going to butter my pappardelle so the sauce can slip off of them
Yeah, I’ll really have to think about how this can be saved for future use. Then the question is: pimp out before freezing, or when I thaw some and make a dish with it…
I would do it before freezing by slowly cooking whatever umami source you are using for 15-30 minutes with the ragu to give it some chance to “melt” into the sauce
I find with braises you have to be careful scaling liquid ingredients exactly in line with solids. Typically you need much less than twice the liquid for twice the meat. Doubling the wine inhibited evaporation, contributing to your bland results. I would have used tomato paste instead of canned tomatoes, too, as concentration is the whole point of a sauce like this. I’d doctor the leftovers with anchovy paste and red pepper flakes, some freshly sauteed garlic (and/or mushrooms sauteed in garlic), perhaps a dash of red wine vinegar. You could also consider serving it over something that has more flavor than plain pasta (like herbed polenta or rice pilaf) to bump up the flavor. Fingers crossed you can make it palatable given the insane price of beef!
