{Pasta} Duck Ragu

Another favourite pasta sauce, perfect for your homemade pasta. The recipe comes from a fantastic little pasta restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney called Il Baretto.

Duck Ragu
serves 4
This makes a meaty sauce in a rich gravy. To make it go a bit further or for a more traditional tomatoy sauce add a tin of tomatoes.

1 duck, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 stick celery
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp plain flour
3-4 L water
salt and pepper
800 g tin tomatoes (optional)
150g baby spinach

fresh pappardelle

Preheat the oven to 230C. Place salted duck in a reoasting pan and bake for 45 minutes. Turn the oven down to 190C and bake for another 60 minutes. Allow duck to cool, then take the meat off the bones. Save the juices from the pan and the bones, discard the skin. Chop the duck meat into small pieces.

Place the juices in a saucepan. Add carrot, onion and celery. Saute, then add bones, tomato paste and flour. Saute for 10 minutes. Cover with water and cook, uncovered for 2 hours on low heat until stock is reduced. If its too thick add more water. Season to taste. When sauce is reduced to a creamy consistency, strain throu a sieve, pressing down to get out all the liquid. Place the sauce and duck meat in the pan and gently heat.

Fold duck and baby spinach through cooked pasta until the spinach is just wilted.

{Pasta} Beef Ragout Recipe

This ragout is best made at least a day before serving and served with a thick pasta such as pappardelle. This recipe is adapted from one originally found in Sunday Life magazine many years ago!

Beef Ragout
500g beef shoulder or similar cut
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 sticks celery, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 bay leaf

Red wine sauce
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
1 brown onion, finely diced
1 stick celery, finely diced
1 cup red wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
400g can diced tomatoes
1 cup beef stock

To serve
pappardelle or other pasta of your choice
flat leaf parsley
parmesan

Place beef, garlic, celery, carrot and bay leaf in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover saucepan with a lid. Check pan every 10 minutes or so and add more water if required (the meat needs to be submerged in liquid). Cook for 1-2 hours or until meat is meltingly tender. Remove from heat and allow meat to cool in cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, for the red wine sauce, place olive oil in saucepan over a gentle heat. Cook garlic, onion and celery for 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Add red wine and, once it has evaporated, stir in tomato paste and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes and stock and cook for 15 minutes to develop rich flavours and achieve a thicker consistency. Once the meat has cooled, tear into shreds. Add shredded beef and vegetables from broth to the red wine sauce (I use a slotted spoon for this task). Adjust seasoning as necessary.

Toss the ragout with pasta and finish with finely chopped flat leaf parsley and parmesan.

STOP PRESS

Our next gathering will be Friday the 27th of July.  Check back here for more details very soon!

{Pasta} Pasta dough recipe

Here is the fresh pasta recipe we used. You can mix the dough by hand or using a food processor, I have given both methods below. We used the dough to make fettucine, ravioli and tortellini.

Fresh Pasta
generously serves 4

4 large eggs
440g flour (white wings works well, you don't need 00 flour)

Place 400g flour in a pile on a clean bench and make a well in the centre, set 40g aside. Crack eggs into the well. Use a fork to mix the eggs and gradually add in the flour until a dough forms. Knead the dough by hand adding extra flour as needed.

Alternatively combine 400g flour and eggs in a food processor and pulse until a dough forms.

Cover dough and rest for 30 minutes.

Divide dough into 3-4 equal pieces and roll each out using a pasta machine, keeping the remaining pieces covered. Start on the thickest setting, if you didn't knead the dough by hand then pass it through at least 6 times, folding the ends into the middle to keep a neat rectangular shape. Once dough is smooth, continue to pass through the pasta machine, adjusting to a thinner setting each time.

Place sheets on a floured bench and cover with a dry teatowel until needed.

Use the attachment to the pasta machine to cut into fettucine etc or use the whole sheets to make ravioli, tortellini, lasagna etc...

Pasta, pasta and still more pasta!

The roads were wet, the air was cold, but the atmosphere was very warm and welcoming as we prepared to cook and eat at the second instalment of FEAST! The theme for the evening was pasta.  After some chatting and nibbles, the pasta making began.

From this...

...to this!

We decided to make three different types of pasta - tortellini, ravioli and fettuccine.  The tortellini was filled with a pork and veal filling, the ravioli with baby spinach and ricotta, and the fettuccine was served with a lovely beef ragout.

Pork and veal (and garlic and pecorino and parsley and and and...)tortellini

Many hands make light work

Well, so much chatting and eating, and not a lot of discussing the next FEAST. So, keep your ears open, you will be sure to hear something soon!  I will post the pasta filling recipes shortly.