One whiff of this hearty, fragrant sauce bubbling on your stove and you'll think you've just parachuted into the Apennines right in front of a trattoria, in sheep country. The mountains of central Italy—notably in the Abruzzo and Molise regions—have always been populated by shepherds. Consequently, lamb is the basic meat, and the cheeses are made from sheep's milk.
Shoulder would be our cut of choice, but really any lamb stew meat will do. Even though the recipe calls for boneless meat, if you have some lamb on the bone, throw it in. The bones will add flavor and will be easy to remove once the sauce is cooked. Lamb is fatty, so the sauce will benefit from overnight chilling and subsequent degreasing. But if you can't bear to throw away that yummy lamb fat, roast some potatoes Italian style—cut up in small pieces with lots of rosemary—and use the lamb fat instead of olive oil.
Ingredients
For thecondimento:
To make the dish:
Step 1
Mince finely together the onion, carrot, celery, marjoram, sage, and rosemary needles (in the food processor if desired) and put in a medium saucepan with the oil. Cook over low heat until the vegetables just turn pale gold, about 8 minutes.
Step 2
Add the meat and brown gently, stirring.
Step 3
Raise the heat and add the wine. Let it bubble until you can no longer smell any alcohol, about 2 minutes.
Step 4
Add the drained tomatoes, the chile, and 1 level teaspoon salt. Lower the heat and cook, covered, for about an hour, stirring occasionally. You'll know the sauce is done when it has visibly thickened and the fat has separated and bubbles on the surface.
Step 5
Make-ahead note:The sauce may be made ahead up to this point and refrigerated until the next day. After some hours of chilling, the fat will come to the surface and can be removed very easily.
Step 6
Bring 5 quarts (5 liters) of water to a boil in an 8-quart (8-liter) pot over high heat. Add 3 tablespoons kosher salt, then add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, untilal dente.
Step 7
Warm a serving bowl or platter in a low oven. If the oven is not practical, warm the bowl just before use with hot water, even a ladleful of the pasta cooking water.
Step 8
Drain and transfer the pasta to the heated serving bowl. Toss the pasta first with the cheese and then with the sauce. Finish with a sprinkling of parsley and serve immediately.
Pasta shapes:This sauce goes with bothflour-and-waterandegg pasta:tagliatelle,conchiglie, rigatoni,sedani,tortiglioni,fregnacce,fettuccine,lagane,pappardelle, orpaglia e fieno. It's also perfect withgnocchi di patate.
Wine suggestion:Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
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Reviews (3)
Back to Top这肉酱是优秀的。我做了3个变化,两个on purpose and one by accident. I added 8 ounces diced portobello mushrooms and 3 cloves of garlic with the onions, carrots and celery (because who makes a ragu without garlic?). And I forgot to drain the tomatoes before adding them, but it turned out ok anyway. I think a ragu is much better when it is cooked low and slow, so I cooked it for about 6 hours on day one, chilled it overnight, removed the fat, and then warmed it on low again for about another 2 hours. It was thick and rich and delicious over homemade fettuccine. I have also made it using leftover lamb shoulder roast from the Epi recipe 'Rosemary and Thyme Braised Lamb Shoulder' and that works well too.
dlk1217
Brooklyn, NY
12/28/2018
I followed the recipe exactly. It was just okay. Nothing special, but not bad either. One diner thought that the sauce was too thin. I will probably not make this again.
pkiorpes
Philadelphia, PA
3/18/2014
This was great and pretty easy to make. I didn't have rosemary so left it out. One tip I would give is that the fat doesn't really have time to cook off so if there is thick fat on the lamb it's best to cut that off before cooking. I would definitely make again. I used bow pasta which worked great.
kchocoholic
Canada
3/5/2014
