I made some ragu over the winter break and it turned out pretty well. I’m thus writing down the recipe for future reference. (Also per my parent’s request, hence the Chinese translation below lol.) This recipe is basically a transcription of these two tutorials on YouTube: Gina’s recipe, and Vincenzo’s recipe.

English

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup chopped yellow onion
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1 cup chopped carrot
  • .5 pound ground pork
  • 1.5 pound ground beef (lean)
  • 1 cup dry red wine (~400g)
  • 1 quart peeled tomato (=1L or 4 cups)
  • 1 quart tomato puree
  • 6 ounces of tomato paste
  • 1 cup of milk
  • pasta (preferably Fettuccine or Tagliatelle)

Making the Ragu:

  1. Start w/ cold pan and add moderate amount of (extra virgin) olive oil
  2. Add chopped onion and cook on relatively low heat. Let it sweat. Afterwards, add the chopped celery and carrot. Saute with 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper for about 5 min.
  3. Add the meat, along with 1 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper. Saute until the water evaporates.
  4. Add 1 cup of dry red wine and wait for it to reduce.
  5. Add 6 ounces of tomato paste.
  6. Add 1 quart peeled tomato (make sure you crush the tomato) and 1 quart of tomato puree. Also add some water.
  7. Simmer for at least 4 hours with the lid off on very low heat; add water whenever it is needed. Also season to taste.
  8. Finally, add 1 cup of milk and reduce to the desired consistency.

Assembling the Pasta

  1. Boil pasta for 10-12 min or whatever is written on the package. At the same time, start heating up the ragu in a pan.
  2. After the pasta is done, strain it and mix with the ragu in the pan. In the process, add some of the pasta water to the pan as well.
  3. Serve the pasta with pecorino on top.

Notes and comments

  • I personally like to sweeten the ragu a bit more to balance our the sour.
  • I’m going to try a 2:1:1 ratio between onion, carrot, and celery next time.
  • Apparently you can add pork liver as a special ingredient. Gonna try it next time.
  • When the sauce is simmering, you don’t want to add too much water, because the desired consistency is rather dry and it takes time for water to evaporate… Since you cannot add too much water, you want to check on it once in a while to make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom.

中文

材料

  • 1 cup 洋葱切块
  • 1 cup 西芹切块
  • 1 cup 胡萝卜切块
  • ~250g 猪肉糜（可以稍微肥一点）
  • ~700g 牛肉糜（需要瘦一点）
  • 1 cup 干红（不甜的红酒）
  • 1L 罐装去皮整番茄(peeled tomato)
  • 1L 罐装番茄泥(Tomato Puree)
  • 6 ounces 番茄酱(tomato paste， 注意这个和平时说的番茄酱不是一个东西)
  • 1 cup 牛奶
  • 意面(需要宽面，比如Tagliatelle或者Fettuccine)

肉酱的做法:

  1. 冷锅中加适量橄榄油
  2. 加切好的洋葱，小火炒一会。然后加芹菜和胡萝卜。加适量的盐和胡椒（不用一次加到位）小火炒5分钟。
  3. 加肉，盐和胡椒。炒到水分基本蒸发干净。
  4. 加1 cup红酒。然后等到它烧干。
  5. 加番茄酱，炒开后加罐装番茄（注意要把番茄压碎），番茄泥。再加水少许。
  6. 用很小的火开盖慢炖至少4小时。烧干时加水。这里也可以开始调味。
  7. 最后加一杯牛奶，然后烧到这种浓度.

意面

  1. 在煮意面的水里多加盐，烧大约10-12分钟。同时开始热肉酱
  2. 面煮完之后加到烧肉酱的锅里，拌匀。
  3. 上菜前撒上pecorino芝士