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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Cold Peanut Noodles

When we wrote The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book, I was for a time in heaven. Peanut butter is just one of those things: comforting, deep-tasting, salty, sweet. That the French hate it so much is a mystery to me. I consider it the foie gras of America. (Well, OK, almost.)

The great thing about cooking with peanut butter--particularly savory cooking--is that you're starting with an already developed sauce, as it were. There are so many deep, caramelized flavors going on in peanut butter that you're miles ahead of the sauce-making game from the get-go.

So this easy side dish--or main course for a light lunch--is a wonderful thing on a summer day. (I wouldn't know--it's raining and cold here in the Berkshires. But I have a pretty vivid imagination.)

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Tuna (And Artichoke) Noodle Casserole

When we were on Martha Stewart radio a few weeks ago, Betsy Karetnick, the host, was on a tear about tuna noodle casserole. She was asking people to call in to try to sell her on the whole idea.

Now I ask you, Betsy: what's tuna noodle casserole done to you? Too many Lutheran church socials? A couple Methodist funerals thrown in the mix?

It all got me thinking about how much I wanted some for dinner. And soon. After all, one host's horror is another man's comfort. 

No, Bruce and I don't use cream of mushroom soup (aka, Midwestern food fix-it, guaranteed to smooth over any mistakes). And no, we don't crumble potato chips over the thing before baking. But we do cut the fat quite a bit. And we put artichokes in it. A green vegetable. It's sort of healthy. It's definitely real food.

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Carbonara

You'd think I'd be done with pork after HAM: AN OBSESSION WITH THE HINDQUARTER. But you'd be wrong. I'm hardly done with it. Because pork is always good. Always.

One of my favorite quick meals is pasta alla carbonara. Not the nasty cream sauce you get in most joints. Blech. The cream ruins everything. (And I promise never to say a word against you again, my overlord cream.)

Real pasta alla carbonara is utterly creamless. It's also usually made with guanciale, or smoked pig's jowl. We happen to have one left in the freezer from Wilbur, our own pig. But we've also been known to use 1) bacon, 2) turkey bacon, 3) Canadian bacon, or 4) soy bacon (horrors!).

I've even seen some recipes--authentic Italian ones at that--that call for pancetta. Frankly, I prefer the taste of a smoked meat. Maybe it's that bacon-and-eggs thing.

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