Ragu of Fresh Sausage
This recipe creates a rich, meaty red sauce that is comfort food. The addition of cinnamon adds an interesting twist to its flavor profile.
Servings: 10 people
Equipment
- 1 food processor
- 1 Dutch oven
- 1 large saute pan
Ingredients
- 1 large onion
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 large carrots
- 2 large celery stalks
- 1 1/2 lbs fresh sausage
- sweet spices but no fennel, chilis, garlic
- 2 cups white wine
- 1 small can tomato paste
- 2 packages Pomi sauce or 1.5 cans of 28 oz. tomato sauce
- 4 very tight cinnamon sticks
- 2 rosemary sprigs (good size sprigs)
Instructions
- 1. Finely chop onion, garlic, carrots, and celery.Note: If using a food processor, process carrots and celery together separately from the onion and garlic. They process at different rates and the onion will liquify before the carrots and celery are fine enough. Peel the carrots and wash the celery, cut them in 2” pieces, place in processor and pulse until they are quite fine but still distinct pieces. Do the same for the onions and garlic, taking care not to process them to the point that they lose their liquid.
- In a Dutch oven, add 2 tablespoons olive oil to an already heated pot. Add all the vegetables and sweat over medium low heat, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Do not allow the vegetables to brown.
- Meanwhile, remove the casing from the sausage. Crumble the meat with your hands or squash it up with the back of a wooden spoon.
- When vegetables are well sweated, add the sausage to the pot and cook until done, turning up the heat a bit, if needed. Sausage should be only lightly browned.
- Turn up the heat a little bit, wait for a minute or so, then add the white wine and cinnamon sticks. Bring to a boil; then reduce to a hard simmer and reduce by half to burn off the alcohol.
- Add tomato paste with equal part water and incorporate completely. Add tomato sauce and equal amount of water. Bring to a boil; turn down to a low simmer and reduce for 2 hours.
- Add first branch of fresh rosemary just after all the ingredients have been added and sauce is brought to a simmer; remove after barely an hour. Do not let the rosemary stay in the pot so long that the leaves begin to fall off. Discard the used sprig. Repeat this process with the second fresh sprig of rosemary.
- When the sauce is reduced to a thick consistency, after about 1 ½ - 2 hours, taste and add salt and pepper. If any fat begins to separate in the sauce or the sauce becomes too intense, lighten with a little water, maybe a cup or so, and continue to cook to marry flavors again.
- Allow to cool off heat for a couple of hours to marry flavors well, before reheating the necessary amount. Alternatively, transfer the sauce to a sealed container and refrigerate; this will keep for 3-4 days and freezes well.
- Serve with very thin egg pasta. Heat about ¾ cup per portion in a large saute pan that leaves room for mixing the cooked pasta with the sauce. Add 1 pat of butter per person and a pinch of cinnamon to punch up that flavor just a tad. After adding cooked pasta to sauce and mixing for a moment, add a little olive oil to for some shine and a small spoon of pasta water if the pasta seems too tight.
Notes
We made some substitutions to Denise's recipe because we could not find veal and pork sausage, so we used Italian sausage. Also, we could not find Pomi sauce, so we used 1 1/2 cans of 28 oz tomato sauce.