Ground Turkey Ragu With Tagliatelle Recipe 465

Steps:

• In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil, four turns of the pan, over medium-high. Add the turkey and cook, breaking into pieces with a spoon, until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and herbs; season with salt and pepper. Partially cover and cook until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook until the wine is reduced to about 1/4 cup, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and reduce the heat to medium-low. Partially cover and cook until the sauce thickens, 15-20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt the water, add the pasta and cook to al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Add the butter, half the sauce and the cooking water; toss. Serve topped with more sauce and cheese.

Steps:

• Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, stir in the macaroni, and return to a boil. Cook the pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain well in a colander set in the sink.
• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir onions until translucent and slightly brown, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and stir in garlic. Cook for 1 minute, then add the ground turkey. Cook and stir until the turkey is no longer pink. Mix in the diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, parsley, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Combine pasta with the tomato sauce in the skillet. Toss pasta with the fontina cheese and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese until the cheese is melted. Serve pasta in a large bowl with 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Steps:

• Finely chop onion, carrots, celery, and bell pepper. Mince garlic.
• In a large heavy non-stick skillet melt butter with oil over moderate heat until foam subsides and cook turkey, stirring and breaking up lumps, until just cooked through, about 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon transfer turkey to a bowl and in fat remaining in skillet cook chopped vegetables, garlic, rosemary, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are just softened, about 4 minutes. Add wine and cook until most of liquid is evaporated. Stir in 1 can tomatoes with purée, tomato paste, broth, and cinnamon and simmer 15 minutes. Add turkey with any juices in bowl and remaining can tomatoes with purée and simmer, stirring, 15 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper and keep warm, covered. Sauce may be made 1 day ahead and cooled, uncovered, before being chilled, covered. Reheat sauce over low heat.
• Fill a 6-quart kettle three fourths full with salted water and bring to a boil for pasta. Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente. Drain pasta in a colander and in a serving bowl toss pasta with sauce.

Steps:

• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring, until golden and most of the fat has rendered, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate.
• Add the oil to the skillet. Stir in the carrot, celery, onion, garlic and bay leaf. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are soft and a little golden in spots, about 7 minutes. Scrape the mixture onto a plate.
• Add the turkey to skillet and cook, breaking up meat with a fork, until golden and cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. Return pancetta and vegetables to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the wine; cook, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet, until it is mostly evaporated. Add the crushed tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the butter until melted. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary. Serve over pasta, topped with a dollop of ricotta.

Steps:

• For the sauce: Put the ground meats in a large bowl; loosen, crumble, and toss the meats together with your fingers.
• Drop the chunks of onion, carrot, and celery into the food processor, and mince fine, to an even-textured paste. Pour the olive oil and drop the butter into the big saucepan, and set over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, scrape in the paste, or pestata, season with 1 teaspoon of the salt, and cook and stir the pestata until it has dried out and just begins to stick to the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes.
• Quickly crumble all the meat into the pan, stir with the pestata, sprinkle over it 1 more teaspoon of salt, and cook, tossing and stirring occasionally, until the meat starts to release its juices. Turn up the heat a bit, and continue cooking and stirring the meat as the juices evaporate, about 10 minutes, taking care that the meat doesn't brown or crisp.
• When the juices have disappeared, pour in the white wine, bring it to a bubbling simmer, and cook until evaporated, 2 or 3 minutes. Meanwhile, stir the tomato paste into the milk until blended. When the wine has cooked away, pour in the milk and cook, stirring, until it has cooked down.
• Now ladle 2 cups or more of the hot stock (or water) into the pan, just enough to cover the meat. Stir in the bay leaves and the remaining salt, and bring the liquid to an active simmer. Cover the pan, adjust the heat so the liquid is steadily bubbling (not boiling rapidly), and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, as the broth gradually reduces. Stir in about 2 more cups hot stock, just to cover the meat again, then give another 20-minute period of covered cooking and reducing. Stir in a final addition of 2 cups stock, and cook, covered, until the ragù is thick and concentrated, 20 minutes or so. (The sauce should have cooked for at least an hour and incorporated 6 to 8 cups of stock in total.)
• Taste the ragù and adjust the seasoning. If you've prepared it in advance, let it cool, then refrigerate and freeze as you wish. Or you can remove about half (for future use) and prepare tagliatelle now, keeping about 3 1/2 cups of freshly cooked sauce in the big saucepan, to dress the pasta.
• To cook the tagliatelle: Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil. Shake the nests of tagliatelle in a colander or strainer to remove excess flour. Drop all the pasta into the pot at once, and stir to loosen and separate the strands. Cover the pot, and return the water to a boil rapidly. Set the cover ajar, and cook the pasta, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or more, until barely al dente (the pasta will cook a bit more in the pan of sauce).
• Meanwhile, heat the ragù to a simmer. If it has cooled (or been chilled or frozen), it will have thickened, so reheat it slowly in a wide pan, stirring in a cup or so of stock or water, to loosen it.
• Lift the al dente tagliatelle from the cooking pot quickly, with a spider and tongs, drain briefly, and drop the pasta into the simmering ragù. Toss together, over low heat, for a minute or more, until all the strands are coated and perfectly cooked. Thin the sauce, if necessary, with hot pasta water, or thicken it quickly over higher heat.
• Turn off the heat, sprinkle a cup or so of grated cheese over the tagliatelle, and toss well. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil, toss again, and heap the pasta in warm bowls. Serve immediately, with more cheese at the table.