Pappardelle con Bolognese

Recipe compliments of Chef Light, Shenandoah Club

Bolognese Ragu

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 ribs celery, finely chopped

2 medium carrots, finely chopped

2 tablespoons garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

8 ounces pancetta, chopped

32 ounces beef, pork, veal

4 tablespoons tomato paste

1.5 quarts chicken stock

1 cup heavy cream

Black pepper, fresh milled

Kosher salt

Pappardelle pasta

Heat olive oil in 3″ deep skillet or braising pan.

Add carrots, celery, onion and cook for 5 – 7 minutes until softened.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook 2 minutes.

Remove mirepoix* to dish and reserve until later.

Add pancetta to the pan, cook until enough fat has been released.

Add meats, breaking up and covering the bottom of the pan.

Continue Cooking the meats until overly browned and crisp.

Add tomato paste, cook for 3 minutes and reintroduce mirepoix.

Add 1/3 of the stock to deglaze, reduce until almost dry, lower heat.

Add remaining stock and simmer for 40 minutes.

Add in cream, simmer 5 minutes and season.

It’s almost time!! So start your pasta.

When pasta is ready drag pasta into Bolognese.

*Mirepoix is a combination of aromatic vegetables that gives a subtle background flavor to dishes such as soups, stews, and braises. Mirepoix, a French term, is typically made up of onion, carrot, and celery. 

Chef Roger Light is the Executive Chef at the Shenandoah Club in Roanoke, Virginia. Occasionally he offers fabulous cooking classes from his home kitchen. This evening he showed us how to prepare Pappardelle con Bolognese. I encourage you to try making this deliciously authentic Italian dish.

Pappardelle pasta is broad, flat pasta, somewhat similar to wide fettuccine, which originated in the Tuscany region.

Chef Light explained the importance of cooking your pasta in salted water. The salt enhances not only the flavor but also the texture of the pasta. He added that most pasta will cook in about 6 minutes.

The chef cautioned not to chop the vegetables too early because they will begin to weep liquid. If they do weep, drain the vegetables and save the liquid to add to the sauce later, as part of the total liquid (chicken broth) that is added to the dish while cooking.

To drag the pasta into the sauce (allows the sauce to adhere to the pasta – the starch in the pasta water is emulsifying agent and also a thickener), simply move your pasta pot (without draining your pasta) next to your pan with the sauce in it and use tongs to take the pasta from the pot and drag it into the sauce, incorporating any pasta water that remains on the pasta.

While enjoying the cooking class, I enjoyed a glass of Royal Gran Reserva 2011 Rioja. Grape varietal: Tempranillo. Wine created and aged for 30 months in American white oak. Medium intensity, brilliant and great aromatic complexity. Warm, rich and silky taste.

Delicious recipes on the Behind The Page Blog: theroanoker.com

Southern Spoonful Recipe Column ~ The Roanoker Magazine

You are invited to visit my Facebook page: Bubblybee

Please follow me on Instagram: cocktails_w_bubblybee

The post Pappardelle con Bolognese – Cooking at Home with Chef Light appeared first on Bubbly Bee.