Believe it or not, this cheesy (and delicious, if I do say so myself) baked pasta dish began as a pot roast! The same day I made the duck rilettes, Chad and I also made a yummy pot roast dinner for friends. We browned the (red wine-marinated) chuck roast we got from Neola Farms in bacon fat, then braised it for a few hours with red wine, vegetables, and a bouquet garni. When it was tender to the point of falling apart, we removed the roast from the cooking liquid, reduced the liquid, and used it to glaze the roast at a higher temperature in the oven.
Since Chad and I didn't really have any idea how many people to expect for dinner, we ended up making far too much. (As opposed to our usual m.o. of making not enough? Ha!) Result? A large plate piled with leftover braised beef. What to do? Make bolognese! And make it I did.
Chad was out of town for a week or so, and I seem always to be inspired to make long-cooking recipes when I am in the house by myself. I used an onion, a carrot, some garlic, six big cans of organic whole tomatoes, the leftover beef, and a heck of a lot of olive oil, as well as some red wine vinegar to make my bolognese. The sauce cooked for about three hours, and by then the meat was completely changed from lovely tender pot roast to a wonderful, melty texture in the bolognese. I froze the sauce and gave half to my grandmother, who lived in Italy for a good while with my father and the rest of the family way before I was born. Incidentally, I was at her house a few days ago, and I noticed that the sauce is still in the freezer untouched. Hmmm...
The other half lived in my freezer for a couple of weeks until Chad and I decided to thaw it out and have it for dinner with some homemade pappardelle. Our pasta dough: 3 cups white flour, 1 cup wheat flour, a sprinkling of cornmeal, and six eggs. We rolled out the dough with the trusty kitchenaid pasta roller (gasp! I know, I'm just lazy that way) and cut the noodles with a pizza cutter. This was a delicious dinner, and the pasta was so easy to make that I really feel bad for ever eating boxed pasta.
And finally, after a very long day this week, we tried to go to Bari, our most favoritest restaurant in the whole wide world, with the kids to grab a quick dinner before heading home for bath time and bed time, but were unable to stay because the bar was packed (yes, we eat at the bar with our children. Big deal, wanna fight about it?) so we went home and had to scrounge for dinner. Enter the leftover pappardelle from two nights previous...put it in a baking dish, poured a little heavy cream over it and topped with bread crumbs, grated parm, and salt and pepper, and voila! The third and best incarnation of the pot roast: baked pappardelle.
Phew!
By the way, wonderful and more exact recipes for the pot roast and the bolognese can be found in one of my favorite cookbooks, Cooking by James Peterson.
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