Text 5895, 132 rader
Skriven 2008-04-22 20:52:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE SACERDOTE
Ärende: pleasant things 190
===========================
 DS> Although we won't be able to get time enough off from work to attend
 DS> the entire picnic this year, Maryanne and Lynn and I have decided that
 DS> we are going to attend for at least part of it, seeing as Windsor NY 
 DS> is only about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Enfield.

I'm glad to hear that you can attend some part of the event and
will look forward to seeing you all three. Won't be able to ride
with you, though.

FXcuisine's Ragu Finto
cat: main, Italian, sauce
Servings: 4 as a main course

1 sm onion
2 garlic cloves
100 gr quality italian sausage or salami
1 Tb olive oil
Salt and pepper
250 ml full fat cream
1 sm glass red wine (exact quantity not crucial)
6 generous tablespoons tomato concentrate
- (do not substitute, you need concentrate,
- this does not work with fresh tomatoes)

You will note that FXcuisine is, shall we say, not shy
about his attainments (which are considerable) -

My own version of the Neapolitan quick ragu. Ready in under
20 minutes it has a unique hit-me-back taste that will keep
you coming and coming to the pot until none is left.

Can you invent an authentic Neapolitan recipe? I believe you
can. In my Neapolitan Ragu recipe I have shown you how to
make this cult meatless meat sauce in under 7 hours, but you
must know that most mamas in Naples nowadays make various
shorter versions collectively known as ragù finto [ragoo
fintaw] or fake ragù. Here is my own - not traditional and
yet very much in line with Neapolitan orthodoxy. You can
make it in under 20 minutes and it is really, really
awesome.

If you try making it in advance it won't work as you'll eat
all of it straight from the pot

Peel your sausage and slice lengthwise, then lengthwise
again, and finally crosswise to get the smallest cubes
you can.

Peel and dice the onion.

Pour a little olive oil in your favorite pan. Heat the
oil, then add onion and sausage in a cascade.
You could start with the sausage with no oil if it has lots
of fat, then remove the meat when it has become slightly
crispy, and let the onion soften in the rendered fat. We
will now add 3 Tb tomato concentrate and bring it to the
edge of charred.

Douse with red wine. Do not worry about the exact quantity,
a small glass, half a cup.

The wine serves the triple purpose of diluting the tomato
concentrate so as to spread it evenly, to deglaze whatever
browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan and to add a
little sugar to balance the tomato's tartness. If you put a
little too much wine, just let it boil off.

Mix well so that you obtain a smooth mixture that covers the
bottom of the pan and let it darken over medium-high heat,
mixing if necessary to avoid any burning.

Clean setup for the showdown.

Bought pasta on FXcuisine? I know, but these are durum wheat
bronze extruded paccheri straight from Naples - the exact
pasta served in Neapolitan restaurants. Drop them in the
boiling salted water.

Our sauce has toned down considerably.

We'll now dilute the darkened tomato concentrate with a
couple ladlefuls from the pasta sauce. Why use the pasta
water? It's available and hot, and the starch will help
build up the sauce's consistency if the need be.

Mix the tomato paste with the water. If your tomato has
stuck to the pan and you see a black layer at the bottom,
you can either remove this to another pot to finish the
sauce or just continue, ignoring 20 years of research that
consistently shows the bleeding heart syndrome to be caused
by burnt tomatoes.

Turn the heat off and wait until the sauce has stopped
bubbling. Add the cream and enjoy the white-on-red contrast.
Beautiful! Please consider that although the cream is
essential to my recipe, a Neapolitan mama would probably not
have used it.

Whisk the sauce to combine the tomato sauce with the cream.
Don't look too often into the pot or you'll make a mess
playing with the pseudo-chaotic patterns.

Don't stop whisking until you have a smooth, uniform color.
Check seasoning for salt, pepper and chili powder (I use
Piment d'Espelette but this is personal).

Remove a pacchero from the water and cleanly trim the end
with a kitchen knife to test for doneness.

When the pasta is still too hard to eat, but just so, remove
it to a hot dish. It is imperative you keep it undercooked
by a full minute. Readers of FXcuisine.com use a slotted
spoon, sieve or skimmer to remove the pasta from the water
rather than empty the whole pot down the drain. Smart people
since they can always return the pasta to the pot if the
need be. Now you've been told!

What next? A diet perhaps, but let's wait until tomorrow.

Combine the sauce with the pasta, mix and serve. Unless you
have shark repellant and a stun gun in the kitchen, do not
let your guests inside and do not, under any circumstances,
bring the whole dish out or there will be blood. The pasta
is so good and addictive with that hit-me-back caramelized
tomato taste subtly diluted with the cream - people will
just do anything to get more.

Published 09/04/2008
http://FXcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=165
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