You know you are off to a great start to the New Year when you completely forgot to blog your New Year’s Day dinner. Hey, resolutions aren’t for all of us I guess.
I decided that I wanted Ragù because the traditional Pork and Sauerkraut is everything but my jam. I wanted something meaty, saucy, and heavy. Enter Ragù. Ragù is a blanket term for a slow braised, meaty sauce. I’ve done this before with pork, but I wanted to mix it up for the New Year. Lamb is delicious, and my favorite butcher carries it year round.
I served it over gnocchi, topped with basil and parmesan and everyone in the house ate it, and loved it. It’s perfect for a day that you are going to be home, hanging out, basking in the delicious smell that it creates. It’s the ultimate comfort.
Ingredients:
3 lbs. lamb shoulder, cubed
2 medium onions, diced
4 carrots, fine dice
2 stalks celery, fine dice
12 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp. tomato paste
2 cups good red wine (you’ll drink the other two)
2- 28oz. can tomatoes
seasonings: thyme, bay leaves, rosemary, s&p
Directions:
- Get your dutch oven going over high heat. Add a few swirls of olive oil. Pat your lamb dry with paper towels, and begin browning the lamb. You will have to do this in batches, and don’t overcrowd your dutch oven. You want that nice, dark crust to form on the pieces of lamb. This act of browning meat to perfection is the Lord’s work. Trust.
- Once your meat is browned and set off to the side on a plate, you will begin sautéing the holy trinity of carrots, celery, and onion. The French refer to this mix of veggies as “mirepoix”, and the Italians call it “soffrito”. You will cook these veggies down for more than the standard few minutes, as you want them to caramelize. Now you can add the garlic, and let that go for a few minutes more. 12 cloves might seem like a lot, but we all know I have nothing but love and joy for what may seem like an irrational amount of garlic.
- Deglaze your pan with the red wine, scraping up all of those beautiful crusty bits as you do this. That bottom of the pan is where all the flavor lives.
- Add in the tomatoes, tomato paste, and seasonings. Bring this mixture up to a simmer, and then stick on lid on it, and into the oven it goes. 325 degrees for about 3 hours. It’s that easy!
- When the time is up and your meat is done, I find that it is easiest to remove the meat to a bowl to shred it, and then add it back into the sauce. This recipe also makes a lot, so you can cut it in half if you don’t have children going through growth spurts who claim to be dying of starvation every five minutes like mine do.
- Check and adjust your seasonings, and you can also go the extra mile and add a bit of heavy cream to your sauce, just to remind your family of how much you really love them, and they really are blessed to have you as the family chef.
- I served this with gnocchi, but you can serve it over your noodle of choice. It’s also really delicious scooped straight out of the pot with a piece of crusty bread, or so I’ve heard. 🙂 Kathryn
Beans+Rahz 