The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion & Cooking Manual by Frank Castronovo; Frank Falcinelli; Peter Meehan

Author:Frank Castronovo; Frank Falcinelli; Peter Meehan [Meehan, Frank Castronovo; Frank Falcinelli; Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Artisan
Published: 2010-06-14T04:00:00+00:00

TAGLIATELLE WITH BRAISED LAMB RAGU

There’s nothing traditional about this dish. It’s a French-style braised lamb shoulder pulled apart and then thrown together with the obligatory Italian-American addition of tomato sauce, tossed with pasta, and finished with fresh tarragon, an herb that’s typically more at home with seafood and white sauces.

It is a two-day dish: the lamb gets braised on day one, and you make the sauce and pasta and put the dish together on day two. (Actually, if you make it the way we make it, it can be a three-day dish, since you need the veal stock to braise the lamb. But you can make that and freeze it weeks in advance.)

We like a two-day braise for two reasons: it’s a mellower schedule to cook on, and if you fully chill down the braising liquid, it is easier to degrease it completely and replace the cooked fat with fresher fat, like olive oil or butter, which is better tasting and easier to eat.

The first step of braising is browning. You can brown the meat on the stovetop, but even if takes a smidge longer, we brown our meat in the oven because it’s more contained—i.e., there’s not a cloud of meat smoke billowing from a sauté pan. The next thing to pay attention to is what you’re braising the meat in. The ideal braising liquid is veal stock. If you’re skipping that, use water, not that canned stock crap, and add veal or beef bones when you braise the meat to help make up the difference.

Although you can substitute basil or mint for the tarragon, it’s really not the same (we’ve tried every variation). There’s something about the tarragon that mellows and tames the lamb, and something about it that makes the whole thing take off.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.