Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce

Methods & Madness… Class 15: Sausages & Such
Recipes & Ramblings from Chef School

To start, Rona cut the skin off the pork back fat. I silently cringed as  Rona mumbled something about her Jewish ancestors rolling over in their graves.

We ground the pork butt, chicken and pork back fat together.

Natural sausage casings need to be soaked and flushed with clear water to remove the salt before they can be used. When warmed to room temperature it could be said that they have a “distinctive” odor. Next came the tricky process of attaching the slippery intestines to the stuffing tube. (Don’t go there!)

To check the seasoning, you should fry the meat and taste it. Rona put a little sausage in the pan, and I do mean a little, we split that as neither of us wanted to eat it.

With our teacher’s blessing, we moved on to stuffing.

We took turns jamming the meaty mixture through the sausage attachment and into the casings, a slow and trying process. Once the sausage was stuffed, we twisted the meat every 4 inches or so to make the links.

After boiling the links for 20 minutes, sautéing them in butter (for color), we served them with mustard. Ho-hum… the mustard was not to blame.

This photo of Rona says it all.

Obviously, Rona and I were underwhelmed by this adventure, neither of us will post a recipe for it. I am posting a spaghetti recipe from last week that we both loved. Rona’s blog has a great recipe for smoked trout click here for the recipe.  We also learned about Charcuterie, Paté, and Smoked Fish, which Rona covers in her blog.

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Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce

Author New School of Cooking

Ingredients

• 5 ounces butter
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stalk peeled and minced
• 1 small onion peeled and minced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork
• salt
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 - 28 ounce can tomatoes chopped fine, juice reserved
• 1 teaspoon thyme leaves chopped
• 1 spring of fresh basil leaves chopped
• 1 pound spaghetti
• ½ cup parmesan cheese grated

Instructions

1. Heat butter in a large sauce pot over medium heat. Add carrots, celery and onions and sauté until softened but not browned, about 6 minutes.
2. Add ground meat and salt to taste. Cook, crumbling meat, just until it loses its raw color but has not yet browned, about 3 minutes.
3. Add milk and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer until milk evaporates and only clear fat remains, 10-15 minutes.
4. Add wine and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer until wine evaporates, 10-15 minutes. Add tomatoes and their juice and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium low, until almost all the liquid has evaporated, about 1 hour.
5. Add thyme and cook another 10 minutes. Just before serving, add basil. Taste and adjust seasonings.
6. Cook pasta according to the instructions. Drain, leaving a bit of water in the pasta, and toss with the sauce.
7. Top with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Recipe Notes

Serves 8

“Sausages are like laws, they are better left to people who want to make them.”
– Cathy Arkle
…and then she paused for thought.

Hope you have enjoyed our adventure in the culinary classroom. Join us each week as we continue learning new culinary skills.

You can also read about Rona’s experience on her blog or What’s Cookin online magazine.