Sunday Dinner: Pasta with Tuscan Meat Sauce

My mother, who was Sicilian (well—first-generation Sicilian-American), could turn out some delicious food, especially pastas. And when it was meat sauce, she could bring more meats out of a 3- or 4-quart saucepan than you ever thought possible: meatballs, sausages, chunks of pork and beef—the meats just kept coming and coming. That little saucepan was like a magical, bottomless pot.

I like to try out different recipes for pasta sauces so that I can share them here. This one, which is from Michele Scicolone's 1,000 Italian Recipes, while not as ambitious as my mom's meat sauce, was still very delicious. Instead of the boneless beef chuck called for in the recipe, I used a pound of beef stew meat from Triple S Farm. And I took the sausage meat out of the casings and chopped it into chunks before browning it.

Tuscan Meat Sauce
From 1,000 Italian Recipes, by Michele Scicolone

Makes 8 cups

Recipe headnote: "Spices and lemon zest give this beef and pork ragù a sweet flavor. Serve it with pici." (I used spaghetti.)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup olive oil
4 ounces imported Italian prosciutto, chopped (I used Triple S bacon.)
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 medium red onions, chopped
1 large celery rib, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 pound boneless beef chuck, cut into 2-inch pieces
8 ounces Italian sweet sausages or ground pork
2 pounds fresh tomatoes or 1 28-ounce can imported Italian peeled tomatoes, chopped
2 cups homemade meat broth or store-bought beef broth
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, melt the butter with the olive oil over medium heat. Add the prosciutto and chopped vegetables and cook, stirring frequently, for 15 minutes.

Stir in the meats and cook, stirring frequently, until browned, about 20 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, broth, wine, lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened, about 2 hours.

Remove the beef chunks from the pot. Place them on a cutting board and chop into small pieces. Stir the chopped meat into the sauce. Serve hot. Can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 2 months.
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I cooked a pound of spaghetti, stirred maybe 2/3 of it into the sauce, and heated it through before serving, because I like it when some of the sauce is absorbed into the pasta. But of course you could also just spoon the sauce over the pasta on a serving plate or on individual plates. I grated some Parmesan cheese and served it with the pasta, and we had roasted green beans, carrots, and garlic on the side.

The fairly lengthy browning of the vegetables and then the meat really gave this sauce a rich, deep flavor. And the lemon zest and hints of cinnamon and nutmeg were a wonderful touch. Highly recommended.

I've tried other recipes from Scicolone's book, which you might like to check out if you like meat sauces. This Abruzzo-style sauce is also very meaty, what with the pork, the lamb, and the veal in it. The pork ragù with fresh herbs has merely a pound of ground pork in it, plus fennel seeds and four types of herbs. Finally, if you're looking to use beef short ribs, you might like the short-rib ragù with mushrooms that I featured two years ago this April (warning: this last, from the Fine Cooking Web site, is very time-and-labor intensive).