Honest-To-God Ragu

OK, I'll admit it: over the years, I've become a ragu snob.

It comes from too many marriages. Do you know this part? I've been married four times. Three times to Bruce. What am I, Elizabeth Taylor? Hardly, but he and I have had a commitment ceremony, a civil union, and now a legal marriage.

Before all that, I was married to someone else. Yes, it was a bad divorce. And yes, it was not my finest moment. And yes, her--yes, her--family came from Italy. They knew pasta and pasta sauces. So if I wanted to play in that league, I couldn't look like a rookie.

Solution: I bought Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cookbook in the mid-80s and worked my way through it. I know most people tell that story with Julia Child's books. Not me. I was Italy, not France.

I learned how to make a ragu, riffed off Hazan's to discover my own--and eventually made it for Bruce during one of our three marriages. Sometime in there. Don't ask me to be precise. As John Goodman's character says in RAISING ARIZONA, "So many social engagements, so little time."

The recipe has sort of morphed between us over the years. So I thought I'd give it a whirl here. Because you'll want to take a bath in it when you've made it. Or just put it on pasta. Your choice.

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Almond Semolina Cake

And I mean really old-fashioned. Because Bruce found this recipe in a cookbook originally printed in the 1880s. He had to adapt it a bit--especially the amounts (anyone for "two pennies and a half of semolina flour"?)--but this light, fantastically-moist cake is an incredibly puddling-like affair, pretty straightforward, but rich and satisfying. Best of all, there's breakfast involved. Twice. You'll see.

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