Fettuccine with Short Rib Ragu

The sun is shining, the snow is (almost) gone, spring is near... and I'm making slow cooked braised short ribs.  True to my blog title I'm still hanging on to winter, from a food perspective that is.  In fact I made this more than once last summer and another time early fall.  It's not really a winter dish, but is good on a cold night with a glass of red wine and a fire.

This is the epitome of the type of recipe that my mom would make.  Her menus often revolved around beef and she loved to cook things that she could start earlier in the day and cook for hours and meals that didn't require being served immediately out of the oven.  With five kids and a husband on different schedules I think she appreciated the ease of a recipe that would reheat well and serve a crowd.  This does both.  She would have loved it although I'm pretty sure she would serve it over mashed potatoes instead of pasta.  She was a potato lover but I guess more than anything, the people she was always cooking for, (us kids) were the potato lovers and she always had them on hand.  She would do the same for Beef Burgundy as it always called to serve over egg noodles or a garlic rubbed crostini but my mom always just bypassed that part of the recipe and made her usual mashed potatoes.

I think I just got burnt out on mashed potatoes as a kid because I'm definitely now more of a pasta lover.  It's a lot easier too, but serve it however you like.

This does take a rather large time commitment.  However, do not let that deter you because most of it is 'inactive' time meaning it is just simmering away while you are doing your Sunday chores, a few loads of laundry or maybe more realistically (like me) reading food blogs and watching Food Network.  It starts out this kind of soupy mixture and somehow over the coarse of a few hours transfers into a thick, rich, flavorful Ragu.

I made it recently for a friend who had a baby and Johnny was incredibly envious.  In fact this is apparently my "bring to a friend who just had a baby" dish because I made it last summer for another friend.  It's great for that because it would be fine to make even a day in advance, but also good for entertaining, or you know, just you and your husband on a warm spring day...

Trish's Tips:  If you can't find pancetta or prosciutto you could also use bacon.  The original recipe calls for pancetta, but I've used prosciutto and it turned out great.  If you are feeling adventurous... this recipe calls for a sprinkling of shaved bittersweet chocolate.  I KNOW... it sounds weird, but it seriously is good.  If you grate it on a microplane you won't even know it is there, it just adds complexity.  Kind of like a Mexican mole.  But feel free to omit as well.  As always, really take the time to let the meat brown very well over high heat, this will give it incredible flavor.

Fettuccine with Short Rib Ragu
Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis
4 to 6 servings


Ingredients:
3 TBL olive oil
2 oz pancetta or prosciutto, coarsely chopped
2 1/2 lb beef short ribs
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, quartered
1 carrot, peeled and very roughly chopped
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 garlic cloves
1 (14.5 oz) can tomatoes (whole or diced)
1 TBL tomato paste
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 TBL fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups beef broth
3/4 cup red wine
1 lb fettuccine
4 to 6 tsp shaved bittersweet chocolate (optional)

Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy soup pot over medium heat.  Cook the pancetta until golden and crisp, about 4 minutes.  Meanwhile, season the short ribs with salt and pepper and dredge in flour.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta from the pan and set it aside.  Shake the excess flour off the short ribs and add them to the pan and cook until browned on all sides about 20 minutes total.  Meanwhile, combine the onion, carrot, parsley, garlic, tomatoes and tomato paste in a food processor and pulse until finely minced.  Once the short ribs are browned, add the minced vegetables to the pot along with the pancetta and stir.  Add the rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, beef broth, wine, 1/2 tsp salt and 3/4 tsp pepper.  Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Remove the lid and simmer for another hour and 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Using a slotted spoon, lift out the short ribs and cool briefly on a plate.  Shred the meat with two forks and return it to the pot, discarding the bones.  Discard the bay leaf.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.  Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, following package directions.  Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.  Add the pasta to the pot with the short rib ragu and stir to combine.  If needed, add the reserved pasta liquid a little at a time to moisten the pasta.  Transfer to serving bowls and top each bowl with 1 tsp of chocolate shavings and serve immediately.

White Bean Dip

I had a fabulous weekend doing what I love: cooking.  My friend, Marcie, and I hosted a baby shower this Saturday along with a few other girls, and we were in charge of food.  We scoured through cookbooks for menu planning, did some strategic list making, hit three grocery stores and spent two days cooking.  We had a ton of fun doing it and it all ended up pretty good, if I do say so myself.  I kind of felt like my mom this weekend in the party planning zone, three recipes going at once.  What can I say, I learned from the best.

We made a pretty good mix of tried and true favorites, such as the tomato soup recipe I have posted here previously, and a few newbies as well.  I had several advertisers of my blog (slash followers of my blog telling others about it) at the party, so hopefully some of you have found me.  Sorry, but not all of the recipes will be posted because the added stress of taking photos of each recipe at each stage of cooking/chopping would have potentially put me over the edge.  But who knows, some of the recipes may just make an appearance here eventually.  For those of you interested, here was our menu:  Tomato soup in mini cups with grilled cheeses made with sharp white cheddar to dip in the soup.  We also served mini mac n cheese servings that we baked in a muffin tin and a spinach salad with hazelnuts and blood oranges.  For appetizers we served stuffed mushrooms filled with pecorino and turkey sausage, walnut pesto crostinis and..... White Bean Dip with crudites.

The White Bean Dip was definitely one that fell in the 'tried and true' category and is one that's been around in my family for a while.  My mom, sisters and I are all fans of Giada, whom this recipe comes from.  And I'm pretty sure we all had the cookbook that this comes from within the first few months of it being out.  In fact, I think this was one of the last things that my mom made for me because she knew it was one of my favorites.  I'm a hummus lover as you know, and this is a twist on hummus using white beans instead of chickpeas.  The original recipe calls for parsley and I made it that way for a couple of years, but one time as I went to make it, realized that I didn't have any parsley, but did have a huge bunch of basil from the farmers market.  I tried that instead and have yet to go back to making it the original way.

I often serve it with the pita chips as Giada calls for here, but don't have photos of it, as our menu for the shower was carb heavy enough so we served it with crudites.  Maybe try a mix of both, or depending on your mood or just pick one.  I love recipes like this because as long as you have a food processor it's pretty simple.  These are all ingredients that I generally have on hand, so this can be your go to recipe when you have unexpected hungry guests.  Or maybe even 18 or so expected guests and a pregnant guest of honor.  This will work for that too.  

Trish's Tips:  I have adjusted this recipe to be how I like it, but add more citrus, more oil, more salt and pepper if you like.  Or less, of course.  Make it your own.  Try it with parsley and basil and let me know which one you like better.  The hummus will keep in the fridge, but I think is best at room temperature.  I made it the night before the shower, but made sure to bring to room temperature.  The pita chips won't be the right consistency if made the day before; they tend to get a bit chewy.

White Bean Dip
Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

Ingredients:

Pita Chips:
4 pita breads, split horizontally in half
2 TBL olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Dip:
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 (15 - ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup (loosely packed) fresh basil leaves (or parsley)
2 TBL fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove

Directions:
To make the pita chips:  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cut each pita half into 8 wedges.  Arrange the pita wedges evenly over a baking sheet.  Brush the pita wedges with the oil, then sprinkle with the oregano and salt and pepper.  Bake for 8 minutes, then turn the pita wedges over and bake until they are crisp and golden, about 8 minutes longer.

To make the dip:  In the bowl of a food processor, put in garlic clove.  Turn processor on until garlic clove is sufficiently minced.  Add beans, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Turn on until the ingredients are well mixed.  Add basil.  Slowly add olive oil until the mixture is creamy, adding more olive oil or water to get to desired consistency.  Taste and add salt as needed.  Serve with pita chips or crudites.