Short Ribs with Tagliatelle

I was wandering through Target the other day when Giada de Laurentiis' latest cookbook, Everyday Pasta caught my eye. Since I am always looking for new ways to make pasta -- a staple in our home -- I picked it up. In it, I came across a recipe for short ribs with tagliatelle that I had found on the Food Network website a couple of months ago. I made it then for a big family dinner that included my in-laws, who are not only Italian immigrants, but formerly butchers. So, if a meat and pasta dish passes their muster, I feel pretty good about it. And, it did. They really liked it then, so I decided to make it again the other night for just the four of us. The recipe actually calls for a topping of bittersweet chocolate shavings, but I skipped it just to avoid having my three year old ask me for more. The dish takes a while: more than three hours to prepare. But, most of it is allowing the short ribs to braise. So once you prepare the ribs, the only thing left to do is make the pasta.

The recipe calls for pancetta which is an Italian form of bacon. It doesn't come in strips like American bacon, but in rounds like some Canadian bacons. I've actually also seen it come pre-cut. If you can't find pancetta in your market, you can substitute Canadian bacon.

I would also suggest having your butcher cut the short ribs in half for you. It'll make it easier for you to fit them into your pot or Dutch oven and be able to manipulate them so that you can be sure to brown all six sides. That's right six -- don't forget the ends.

When you dice up the veggies and the tomato paste in the food processor, it should come out looking like a chunky salsa.

After three hours, the braised ribs will be really tender and will pretty much fall off the bone when you take them out of the sauce.

Tagliatelle isn't always available, but really any wide pasta will do. I wanted to use fresh pasta and the closest I could find to tagliatelle was fettuccine. But you can use a dry pasta, too.


Short Ribs with Tagliatelle
Courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis, Everyday Pasta
(makes 4-6 servings)

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces chopped pancetta (about 1/2 cup)
2 1/2 pounds short ribs
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 (14-ounce) can tomatoes (whole or diced)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups beef broth
3/4 cup red wine
1 pound fresh or dried tagliatelle
4 to 6 teaspoons shaved bittersweet chocolate

-- Place the olive oil in a large heavy soup pot over medium heat.
-- Cook the pancetta until golden and crisp, about 4 minutes.
-- Meanwhile, season the short ribs with salt and pepper, and dredge in the flour.
-- Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta from the pan and set aside.
-- Add the short ribs to the pan and brown on all sides, about 7 minutes total.

-- Meanwhile, combine the onion, carrot, parsley and garlic in a food processor and blend until finely minced.
-- Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and pulse.

-- Once the short ribs are browned, carefully add the mixture from the food processor to the pot.
-- Return the pancetta to the pot and stir.
-- Add the rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, beef broth, and wine.
-- Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour and 15 minutes. -- Remove the lid and simmer for another hour and a half, stirring occasionally.
-- Remove the meat and bones from the pot. Discard the bones.
-- Shred the meat and return it to the pot.
-- Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste.

-- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.
-- Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes for dried pasta and 2 to 3 minutes for fresh.
-- Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
-- Add the pasta to the pot and stir to combine.
-- Add the reserved pasta liquid 1/4 cup at a time, if needed, to moisten the pasta.
-- Transfer to serving bowls, top each bowl with 1 teaspoon of chocolate shavings. Serve immediately.

Easy Pizza

Okay, I guess I am going to have to change the intro to my blog. It turns out that I've actually acquired a pizza stone. It was an item up for auction at the annual fundraiser at my daughter's preschool and I was feeling warm and fuzzy after a cocktail or two, so I bid on a lot of things that I might not have otherwise... But, I digress.

So anyway, this pizza stone has been sitting here for months waiting for me to get the courage time to make my own dough. Well, as I was strolling through Trader Joe's last week, a bag of refrigerated pizza dough caught my eye. I had never seen it there before, but I figured I would give it a try.

I took it home, let it rest for 20 minutes, then rolled it out and topped it with kalamata olives (a favorite with my kids) and freshly grated mozzarella. I made my own pizza sauce with a mixture of fresh and canned stewed tomatoes. I put the stone in the oven, and 10 minutes later we had a yummy pizza with a perfect crust -- my husband didn't even know that I hadn't made the dough myself.

Green Pasta and Sauce with Vodka

The other day at the market, I was looking for something a little different, and decided to buy spinach egg tagliatelle. I figured that green pasta would be intriguing enough to keep my girls interested. Then, I just needed to find a sauce that would work with it. When I came across a tomato vodka sauce, I knew it would be a good fit.

I found the original recipe on the Food Network (courtesy of Emeril Lagasse), and then made my own small alterations. Here is the recipe as I cooked it.

Vodka and Sausage Sauce
(makes enough for roughly 4 servings of pasta)

2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 links of mild Italian sausage, removed from the casing and crumbled
1/2 cup chopped yellow onions
1/2 teaspoon salt
Small pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 clove minced garlic
2 cups crushed tomatoes
5 ounces vodka (about 10 tablespoons)
4 ounces heavy cream (about 8 tablespoons)
I teaspoon of basil paste
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for garnish (optional)

-- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
-- Add the sausage and cook, stirring, until browned and all pink has disappeared, 3 to 4 minutes.
-- Add the onions, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until the onions are soft and golden, about 5 minutes.
-- Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
-- Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, until thick, about 2 minutes.
-- Add the vodka and cook until the sauce reduced by half, 3 to 4 minutes.
-- Stir in the cream and cook until the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes.
-- Stir in the basil and remove from the heat.
-- Toss the sauce with the pasta to coat evenly and transfer to a pasta bowl for serving.
-- Top with cheese to taste.

I have a few additional thoughts on this recipe. First, because it's a cream-based sauce, it think the fact that I used egg-based noodles rather than the standard boxed egg-less pasta was important. The pasta was lighter which made it a better companion to a rich sauce. Second, while the sausage added a nice flavor, I think my veggie and Kosher friends could just as easily eliminate the meat from the recipe. Lastly, I used basil paste since I've found it's a good way to always have basil on hand. But, if you have fresh basil handy, you should substitute that instead. Emeril's original recipe called for 1 to 2 tablespoons of chiffonade basil, but I would use a little more since my recipe increased most of the ingredients.

It was a super easy and quickly made sauce that I'll definitely make again. The whole family really enjoyed it. And the best part of the recipe? As long as the vodka was open, I made myself a little cocktail as I cooked! Now that's yummy.

Risotto Rules

Once again, I've lagged on keeping up with my blog. It's not because I haven't found any good recipes, but simply because I haven't found much time to sit down and blog about them. But, this week I made a risotto and received rave reviews from the entire family -- even my hard-to-please three-year old. Newly inspired, here I am blogging about it.

I can't believe it, but it seems that I haven't yet blogged about risotto. Risotto is one of my favorite dishes to make (and eat). It's versatile, easy, relatively quick (can be completed in less than an hour), and can be used as a one-dish meal. I love finding new recipes and experimenting with various ingredients.

Recently I came across a Giada De Laurentiis recipe for Dirty Risotto and modified it in these ways:
-- I didn't have any pancetta in the house, but had some bacon that I needed to use. So, I substituted about three strips of bacon for the pancetta.
-- Her recipe calls for one link of spicy Italian sausage. I chose to use the sweet Italian sausage instead since my girls and husband can't handle the hot sausage. Personally, I would love it to be spicy, spicy, spicy, but I had to keep it low-key for them. I also added a second link since I wanted it to be meatier.
-- Giada includes red bell pepper in the recipe, but I omitted it.
-- Instead of button mushrooms, I used the cremini mushrooms that I already had in the house
-- I had a Maui onion, so I used that. It's a sweet onion, and it worked really nicely with the bacon and the sausage.
-- Mario Batali adds butter to his risotto once it's done. I've taken to doing that as well. It just adds a little more creaminess.
-- I also always add more wine than risotto recipes call for. I probably used about double (1 1/2 cups).
-- I omitted the parsley as my daughter regards anything green in her food with suspicion.

You can check out the original recipe as Giada wrote it on the The Food Network website. Here is my version.

Courtney's Dirty Risotto
(makes 4-6 servings)
5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons butter
3 strips bacon, chopped
2 links sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
1 Maui onion (or other sweet onion), finely chopped
4 ounces cremini mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups Arborio or medium-grain white rice
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, and more to taste

-- In a medium saucepan, bring the broth to a simmer. Cover the broth and keep warm over low heat.
-- In a large heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the bacon and sausage and saute until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
-- Add the onion and mushrooms and saute until tender, scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, about 8 minutes.
-- Season with salt
-- Add the rice, and stir to coat, allowing it to "toast" slightly -- about 1 minute
-- Add the wine, and simmer until the wine has almost completely evaporated, about 1 minute.
-- Add a ladle of broth and stir until almost completely absorbed, about 2 minutes
-- Continue cooking the rice, adding the broth one ladle at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of broth to absorb before adding the next, until the rice is tender but still firm to the bite and the mixture is creamy, about 25 minutes total.
-- Remove from heat, and mix in remaining butter. Stir in Parmesan.
-- Serve immediately with additional Parmesan to taste.

Try it out. Once you get the hang of risotto, I promise you'll be experimenting with all different variations of it.