Pasta Ragu

Does it mean that you're a foodie if you sign up for a cooking class while you're on vacation?  (Not asking for a friend.)  😂 I'm fully embracing my foodie status today - There was no way that I was going to miss out on the opportunity to learn to cook LIKE an Italian FROM and Italian - in ITALY - even if it means I earn the title "foodie".  🇮🇹 Spending the day making classic Italian food with the love of my life in the beautiful town of Bellagio was pretty much a dream come true.  

We started off our cooking class with a trip to the market where we shopped for our ingredients.  Then we spent the afternoon creating the most delicious Italian food that I've ever tasted.  Homemade pasta, bolognese sauce, bruschetta (aka ragu) and tiramisu - oh my.   

I'll admit that it's possible that sitting at an elegantly dressed table under a grapevine awning in the middle of our favorite little Italian town on a beautiful Fall day, influenced my opinion of the food.  ​I may have forgotten some of the details about that day, like the weight of the flour and the amount of fresh sage to put in the sauce, but I'll remember the memories that we made on this special day for a very long time.  

It took 7 people (including 1 professional) 6 hours to create this dream Italian meal.  I anticipated that it would take me roughly 3 days to recreate this meal at home - by myself.  😂  Soooo, I decided to tackle it in stages - or a series of days to be exact.

This is how my Italian cooking week went -
     Day 1 - I shopped for ingredients including Italian tomatoes, ground veal and dried ladyfingers.  (In case you're curious - I had to visit was 3 different grocery stores to get these special ingredients.)
   Day 2 - I tackled the Bolognese sauce, divided it into containers and stored it in the refrigerator.     
     Day 3 - I made the tiramisu and let it sit in the frig overnight (A technique that our instructor recommended for better consistency.) 
     Day 4 - I made the bruschetta and homemade pasta, opened the wine and served my version of  food.  

My goal was to replicate the cooking class meal as closely as I could - with ingredients that are available on this continent.   😂  (I actually did a little happy dance when I ran across these tomatoes in World Market because this was the exact brand of tomatoes that we used to make our Bolognese in Italy.)  Replicating the meal was easier than trying to recreate the beautiful ambience in stunning Bellagio.  

Pasta Ragu
1/4 cup olive oil
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 onion
3 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
25 ounces tomato puree
​1 cup water
7 ounces finely chopped canned tomatoes
1 cup red or white wine
grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
1/3 pound ground veal
1/3 pound ground pork sausage
​1/3 pound ground beef

Cover bottom of Dutch oven with olive oil and heat on low.

Chop onion.

Chop carrot.

Chop celery.

Saute vegetables until tender. 

Add meat and cook until meat releases its water and then evaporates. 

​
Add wine and cook until alcohol evaporates. 

Add tomato puree, chopped tomatoes, water, bay, nutmeg and rosemary.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Cook on low for 2-6 hours.  

Discard bay and rosemary and season with additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Serve ragu with pasta.

I made two separate batches of ragu because well, it's ragu and you and can never have enough.  Just to be sure that I was being thorough in my research, I wanted to make a batch of the ragu made with white wine and compare it to a batch of ragu made with red wine.  (All in the name of research. 😂)Turns out - even though I'm partial to a glass of red wine with dinner - I was a fan of the white wine ragu.  Don't get me wrong - both ragu sauces were amazing and I would never turn down a bowl of either.  I recommend doing your own "research" though.  🍝

​Ciao from Bellagio!