Pasta for meat eaters

This is a robust pasta dish from Naples that will induce a culinary glow of satisfaction for the heartiest of winter appetites, yet is low in calories and inexpensive to make. 

Rigatoni Ragu is the very opposite of those pretentious pasta/noodle recipes that throw fussy things into a cream saturated nest of noodles/pasta. This recipe contains no cream or diary and is relatively low in fat calories, getting its flavour from the slow-cooked ensemble of beef, stock/wine, herbs and tomatoes that breaks down over low heat for at least two hours to produce the final ragu or stew. 

This recipe is also very ‘forgiving’ to make and is inspired by the "Ragù Napoletano" pasta main on the menu at O’Sarracino restaurant at the top of Mt Eden Road, Auckland. Our recipe uses dried pasta, which has a better shelf life (obviously) over fresh, has fewer calories and is easier to cook. As a rule, cook half a cup of dried pasta in three cups of boiling water. Cooking time is anything between five and 15 minutes depending on the type and thickness of the pasta. There’s an old saying - it’s very easy to over cook fresh pasta, while only a fool in the kitchen can over-cook dried pasta. 

Rigatoni Ragu 

First catch your pasta 

Big, tube-shaped rigatoni pasta is of the big variety - perfect for holding thick meat and vegetable sauces and offering a hearty mouthful with every forkful. 

Along with penne (its slightly smaller shaped tubular cousin) rigatoni is a common pasta shape used in Roman cuisine in Southern Italy, the heartland of sun-hungry durum wheat production. Mixed only with water, durum wheat pasta has a high percentage of binding protein that keeps it shape when cooked. Traditionally, it is made with no other binding agents, such as eggs.

It not easy to find rigatoni pasta in NZ retail outlets and we sourced ours (Voiello brand) from the excellent ‘Nosh’ outlet in Ponsonby Road Auckland, although any ‘big’ pasta that will ‘hold’ a thick sauce will do for this dish – including penne pasta tubes or ‘shells’ and other large durum pasta shapes. 

Italians usually eat pasta as an entrée – our rigatoni ragu recipe is designed as a complete meal, served with a salad or freshly cooked green beans. 

We are making enough for six hungry diners, based on 180-200 grams of meat per person. You can portion the recipe to suit the number of diners, but as the ragu will last a while in the fridge, it’s more economical to make the full amount. 

The stew 

Use the same beef meat cuts as you would as for a slow-cooked casserole – blade, shin, shank, or chuck. Pick meat pieces without a lot of gristle or fat. 

The ragu is made in the tradition method of any top of the stove ‘stew’ recipe. Use a medium sized pot on medium heat. In the bottom, first place a tablespoon of oil and a finely chopped whole onion and at least four garlic gloves. Sauté until translucent and take off the heat while you: 

Cut the meat (1.2 kg) into very large chunks and dust with flour that is seasoned with salt and pepper and some dried herbs (optional). Fry these in a skillet with a little oil until all sides are browned. Transfer to the pot. Pour a cup of red wine into the skillet pan to deglaze the flour/meat juice residue and lift off this residue with a wooden spoon – pour liquid into pot. Place the pot on low heat and add two more cups of inexpensive wine (the recipe uses one bottle of red wine in total*), a 375ml packet of liquid beef stock (we used Campbells), a 800 gram can of peeled tomatoes (complete with juice), two bay leaves, a tablespoon of tomato paste, a tablespoon of sugar (for umami) and just a little salt at this stage. The final seasoning is done just before serving. 

It is as easy as that, but if you want to be more flamboyant – add a few peeled and chopped mushrooms, herbs (fresh or dry but don’t over do it), bacon bits and pitted olives. 

Put the lid on and cook at least couple of hours, occasionally stirring with that wooden spoon. Towards the finish, the meat should be starting to break up. Add more beef stock (or water) if the ragu is too thick. It should be the consistency of a thickish soup, not too watery, not too claggy. Taste at this stage and fine tune the salt and pepper seasoning. 

Presentation 

Cook a 500gram packet of rigatoni pasta tubes in a large pot of boiling water (salted) for around 12-15 minutes. Make sure it is cooked soft – undercooked doughy pasta is a sure trip to indigestion. 

Mix sauce into pasta and plate individually. Sprinkle on top grated or thin slices of parmesan. 

Serve with salad or green vegetables such as beans on the side. The pasta ragau keeps well and actually improves over a day or two covered in the fridge. 

* Use inexpensive wine for cooking 

These days there is a lot of wine under $10 suitable for cooking. The wine adds acidity as well as flavour but you don’t want to use a red wine that is overly tannic – it becomes unpleasantly bitter when heated. Most cheap reds are fairly soft anyway. 

Winter 2009

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