Blonde Ragu with Pork, Veal and Sage

Blonde Ragu with Pork, Veal and Sage






Why this one?
This dish is basically a standard ragu but made with milk, cream and white wine instead of red wine and tomatoes. One of my happiest holiday memories is a trip I took to Italy with my sister, we went to Florence and Pisa. During this trip we went on a cookery course in the Tuscan hills at a farm house, where we cooked pasta, tiramisu, bruschetta and drank large quantities of red wine looking out over the Tuscan hills- it was as idyllic and perfect as it sounds. During this cookery school we learnt how to make ragu, traditional ragu with pork and beef mince and tomatoes, it was honestly one of the most wonderful things I have ever eaten. So when I saw a blonde ragu in Gizzi Erskin's SLOW book I couldn't resist giving it ago and seeing if it was as good as the traditional Italian version.

I was initially put off by the veal component but then I considered my reasons why I felt this way and decided that for me it is important to try new things - greatness is not created out of comfort and who knows this might be the best dish I had ever eaten.

Find the recipe here............ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/recipes/0/go-slow-gizzi-erskines-comforting-stews-ragus-one-pots/

Any substitutes? I missed two of the main ingredients from the title!

This project has confirmed to my husband and make me aware that I CANNOT follow a recipe.
After my Internal spiel about challenging comfort I didn't actual use veal I used normal beef mince
No thyme
Only 450g of chicken stock, instead of a pint. 
No sage
No tagliatelle, this isn't stated in the recipe but that's the pasta used in the picture.

The actual cooking of the dish

Started off well, slowly cooking the veg and then the meat in batches. Once this was done I realised I had made my first error - I hadn't minced the bacon. I'd just cut it into squares. What do I do? Should I pull out all the bacon squares? I actual considered this for longer than I really should have - when sense returned to me I did nothing, This dish was going cook for ages - it would be fine.




Then I added all the other ingredients and let it bubble away. I discovered that it is tricky than it looks to partially cover the cooking ingredients when using a la crusset - they are just too heavy. So I didn't cover mine, another blatant disregard for the recipe. Sorry Gizzi.

By the time 2 hours had passed and the dish should have been ready we were right in the middle of bedtime, so another flaunting of the recipe rules and I just let the dish cook longer.

The final part required me to add cream - I found this quite unusual as i'd normally add cream at the beginning of the cooking or once it was done completely. But this rule I did obey.

And now it was done.











Where I ate it
You guessed it - on the sofa with a coca cola. Not sure it was quite the right accompaniment but I was happy.

What I thought
So it didn't look that appealing to eat - pale and slightly grey looking. I am notorious for 'eating with my eyes', but I am a grown up, so I took my first mouthful. I was unprepared for what my taste buds experience next. My mind was expecting that robust flavour of  tomato and red wine being the only ragu I had eaten before, this this was different. The meat literally melted in my mouth, the taste was lighter than a traditional ragu but it was so intense.

The cream and milk (I think it was those things) made the dish rich, I can liken it to is when you have a very dark chocolate torte, you know its good but you really can't eat much. This felt like a savoury version of that.

Difficulty: Easy 

Tastiness rating: 8/10

Next time I'd......try and follow the recipe exactly, maybe use two of the main ingredients listed in the title of the dish, the veal and the sage.