A couple of days ago, I woke up excited for my morning run and there was no mistaking it- autumn had decided to rear the drizzly tendrils of it’s rainy mane.  In Seattle especially, this comes with a touch of bittersweet irony every year since our summers are just so painfully short.  Because that particular run happened to be 9 miles, I felt justified in eating to my heart’s content when we were able to snag a last second reservation later that night at Cascina Spinasse - best seats in the house at one of the hottest newer joints in town.

I ordered the Tajarin al ragu(Tajarin being Piedmontese dialect for tagliolini) as my primo piatto, and it was without a doubt divine, but it got me thinking about what I truly love to ruminate on when it comes to steaming plates of pasta, and that is the element of fai da te or, do it yourself!

I also have to confess that I prefer my tagliolini cut ever-so-slightly larger than those of Spinasse, which, in a home kitchen is blissfully and mercifully easier to create anyway, so the next day, I set about to market gathering ingredients for a neighborhood feast.

During the dark and plenty days of grey that composed last winter, I had occasion to perfect my ragu recipe over time, but I was not so lucky as to have the flowing bounty of produce that is so succulently ripe right now.  Because of my plentiful tomato crop, I’ve opted to leave out canned San Marzano’s and puree my own sweet tomatoes, and can I just say “WOW!” I’m not sure I can go back to canned tomatoes in Bolognese again no matter how fancy their origins!

I did have to augment my homegrown produce with a few purchased items, but that is no problem since Frank’s Quality Produce in Pike’s Place Market has the juiciest Walla Walla sweet onions around right now.  I know because before I could stop him, my unassumingly brave one year old son took a giant bite of one, smiled, and tried to go back for more.

Another amendment I made to the recipe that I will be making a permanent fixture thus forward is going halfsies on the wines- both red and white.  The wine in my house is always dry, and 95% of the time red, but since I was starting the ragu so early in the day, I really didn’t feel like opening a new bottle, so I used up what I had left in the wine fridge and it just so happened that some Pinot Grigio was left over from a party, so I used it to augment the day-old Barbera D’ Alba I had on hand.  I have heard quite the debate on whether red or white is traditional in Bolognese, and now I know why- both are exceptionally good and somehow complement one another.  Another factor to consider is the additive of chopped prosciutto, which perhaps needs the depth of the red to balance its smokiness, but who knows?

I also notice that many ragu recipes call for the addition of cream rather late in the game whereas my recipe tosses it in the pot quite early.  I have tried it both ways, and in the end side with the Cooks Illustrated recipe testers in feeling that adding the dairy (they use milk, I use a combination of milk/cream) in the beginning adds a deeper richness to the sauce.  In any case, I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did, and feel free to use that tagliolini with another sauce should your schedule not afford you the time to sit and stew over a hot pot of meaty ragu.

Handmade Tagliolini with Garden Tomato Ragu

Ragu Sauce

Note: you can always buy ground meat from your trusted butcher, but it is so easy to ground it yourself if you have the Kitchenaid attachment, I highly recommend it for improved freshness

Serves 8-10 (It’s great to make a lot- that way you can freeze it for later)

• 4 tbsp butter
• 5 medium carrots
• 2 Walla Walla sweet onions
• 5 celery stalks
• 3 oz prosciutto
• 1 lb beef chuck, hangar steak, or sirloin tips ground using meat grinder attachment of Kitchenaid mixer
• 1 lb pork shoulder ground using meat grinder attachment of Kitchenaid mixer
• Salt to taste: roughly 2 tbsp
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup cream
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup white wine
• 10 medium tomatoes pureed in food processor (should yield about 7 cups)
• 1/8 c fresh oregano leaves pureed in food processor with tomatoes

1. Melt butter in a large dutch oven over low heat. Meanwhile, chop carrots, onions, celery, and prosciutto into a Mirepoix either by hand or using a food processor.  Sautee the Mirepoix in the dutch oven over medium heat, stirring frequently until vegetables are softened and beginning to sweat- about 5-7 minutes.
2. Add both ground meats to dutch oven along with salt.  Sautee stirring constantly, using the tip of the spoon to break up any clumps of meat. The goal in this step is to cook the meat to just beyond pink, but not to the point of total brown- about 3-5 minutes.
3. Add the milk and cream to the dutch oven and stir frequently so that the liquid breaks down into the ingredients in the pot and the juices run clear, essentially evaporating the milk solids. This could take from 15-30 minutes- be patient.
4. Once the milk and cream have evaporated, add the wines, and follow the same process you did with the milk and cream, stirring frequently until the wine virtually evaporates and again, the juices run clear- from 15-30 minutes.
5. Add the oregano-infused tomato puree to the dutch oven, bring to boil, then reduce heat to low (you may want to switch burners at this point to the smallest burner you have, and may have to use a flame-tamer to tamp the flame).  Simmer the sauce uncovered for 3-4 hours over heat so low only a bubble or two surfaces occasionally.  Stir occasionally to keep a fond from building at the bottom of the pot.  Taste to correct seasonings and ladle over fresh pasta.

Tagliolini

Serves 4-5 (I did not match the servings of the pasta to that of the sauce, as the noodles do not keep extremely well and you would want to make fresh noodles if you were serving the sauce again.)

• 12 oz semolina flour
• 10 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ c water
• All purpose flour as needed

1. Place the semolina flour in bowl of standing mixer fitted with dough hook.  Add the egg yolks, oil, and salt and begin to knead on medium low speed, scraping down the bowl with a spatula.  As the dough starts to come together, add the water and increase the speed to medium.  At this point your dough will start to form a mass, and you can add all-purpose flour until you reach the desired consistency of pliable dough that is not overly-sticky to the touch.
2. Remove dough from mixer and make into 3 balls.  Flour a large work surface and begin rolling out one of the balls into an oval shape.  Roll the dough to as thin as you can possibly get it, and repeat with remaining balls.
3. Carefully hang each sheet of dough over on object such as the back of a chair and cover with tea towels that have been ever-so-slightly misted with water.  Let dough rest for ½ hour.
4. Bring the sheets back to the floured surface and roll out the dough one final time, using as much strength as possible to get the dough truly flat.  Next, generously flour a sheet of pasta and roll it up so it forms a short tube, not the long way so that the tube is long- this way you will have long strands of pasta.
5. Using a chef’s knife on a cutting board, cut the tubes into individual pasta strands as small as you can make them. Once you have cut one of the tubes into their strands, use your fingers and unroll the strands so that they do not stick together creating kinks in your pasta.  Place the strands in a bowl, repeat with remaining two tubes, and cover bowl with a moist tea towel if you are not planning to cook right away.
6. To cook, add a tbsp of olive oil and a tbsp of salt to a large stockpot of water. Bring to boil, add pasta, and cook for 2-3 minutes, until noodles are al dente.  Drain into colander and serve immediately with Ragu ladled over and pass Parmigiano Reggiano or Asiago at the table.