I'll be true to you, ragu

I told someone today I was going to make ragu tonight. He seemed surprised and asked if I really eat that stuff. Yes, he was confusing a ragu with Ragu, the pasta-sauce impostor, which is fine if you're in college and poor and have no taste buds. The former is a completely different thing all together.

The Wiki world defines a ragu as a meat sauce, the word it self coming from French word, ragoût, which is from ragoûte, meaning to retrieve taste. I don't know if that's in reference to cooking things for a long time (the fact you get so hungry waiting for it you just want to "retrieve" it from the stove and chow down), or, that usually in the way you make a ragu, you layer so many flavors you have to make an effort to retrieve their individual flavors.

My ragu usually is a mix of the tradish veg combo, (onion, celery, and carrot) with a couple of garlic cloves, tonight it also includes mushrooms, finely diced; normally I use a mix of ground lamb and ground pork. The wee-sheep was not to be found at the local mart, so I settled for the crude beef instead. Basically you cook the you-know-what out of everything browning little lovely brown bits in the pan. I, then, add a crap load of white wine and chicken stock. Why not beef stock? I really don't know....hmmm. I have not one iota, but that's what I use. And it rocks.

If I'm feeling sassy, I add bacon first and cook the veg in the golden goodness.

The husband loves this meal. It's perfect on a neg degree night (like the -30 winds we have tonight). Like the afore mentioned Irish Stew, it is comfort food through and through.

The first time I had a real ragu was from the source. I was in Italy for multiple weeks and several friends and I had been wanting to try this hole in the wall place that was supposed to be fantastic. Forgive that I can't remember the name, but it was in Lucca near Cafe Leo, but maybe a little north; south of the hostle almost directly. VERY small and their lunch was less expensive than dinner. So we went.

The ravioli with a ragu was one of the specialties. And turns out it's kind of a common thing in the area.

Okay...this stuff was (MAN!) heaven in a bowl. There were only 5 or 6 ravioli, but of course in Italian style, it was the perfect amount.

So, maybe two days later, I'm a lot poorer and having to scrape by, we find a cafeteria style place...what is one of their usual dishes? THE ravioli alla ragu, and it's also amazing, though of course a different recipe. I eat this for like 4 lunches straight when a girlfriend reminds me it's still pasta and no Italian would eat it like that.

So, I stop, and only have it every couple of days.

The trick is you have to let it cook, simmer, bubble away.

Julia Child once said she didn't like Italian cooking because of how few ingredients it includes and how easy it is to make most all of the dishes. She didn't consider it real cooking.

Totally unreal for sure.