Maccheroni With Meat Sauce Recipes

Steps:

• Cook and drain the macaroni and set aside.
• Spray the inside of a 4 qt cooking pot with nonstick spray and place over high heat.
• Add the onions, bell pepper, and celery; cook for 5 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.
• Add the beef and the next seven ingredients (stop after red pepper); cook for 15 minutes, stirring often.
• Stir in the beef stock, tomato paste. and tomatoes.
• Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often.
• Add the macaroni and cook for 8 minutes.
• Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes if it's too soupy.

Steps:

• For the sauce: Drop the chunks of onion, carrot, and celery into the food processor, and mince finely to an even-textured pestata. Dump the ground pork into a large bowl and break up any lumps.
• Pour the olive oil into the big saucepan, and set over medium-high heat. Scrape in the pestata, stir in 1 teaspoon of the salt, and spread it around the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, as the vegetables wilt and dry, until they just begin to stick to the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes. Drop the peperoncino into a hot spot on the pan bottom for a few moments, then stir it into the pestata.
• Lower the heat to medium, drop in the bay leaves, then scatter the ground pork into the pan, again breaking up any clumps of meat with your fingers. Sprinkle the remaining teaspoon salt over it, and stir everything together. Keep tossing the meat and breaking up any clumps until it starts sizzling and releasing its juices. Raise the heat a bit, and cook until all the meat juices have evaporated-about 15 minutes-stirring frequently.
• When the meat is dry and lightly caramelized, pour in the white wine, stir well, raise the heat a bit more, and simmer until the wine has evaporated completely, about 2 or 3 minutes. Pour in the crushed tomatoes, and stir with the meat. Slosh the tomato containers with 2 cups of hot stock or water (to get all the good juices), and stir this into the sauce along with the chopped basil. Set the cover on the pot, and bring the sauce to a simmer, then set the cover slightly ajar, and adjust the heat to keep it bubbling gently.
• Simmer the sauce for about an hour, letting it reduce slowly, then stir in another cup or so of hot stock, so the meat is just covered by liquid. Let the sauce cook and reduce for another hour, then stir in the fourth cup of stock, or more if needed, and simmer for another hour-3 hours total. If the sauce is thin, uncover the pot and cook over higher heat, stirring, to reduce and concentrate to a consistency you like. Adjust the seasoning, stirring in more salt to taste. You can use some or all of the sauce right away, or let it cool, then refrigerate or freeze any amount. Cooled or chilled sauce will have thickened; reheat it slowly, stirring in more stock or water to loosen it.
• For cooking and finishing the pasta: Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil. To dress the whole 1-pound batch of maccheroni, put 3 cups or so of the meat sauce into the wide skillet; loosen with stock or water if necessary, and heat to a simmer.
• Shake excess flour off the fresh maccheroni, and drop the strands into the boiling water, stirring and separating the strands. Return the water to a rolling boil, and cook the pasta for about 4 minutes, until barely al dente.
• Quickly lift out the maccheroni and drop them into the skillet. Continuously toss the pasta in the simmering sauce until all the strands are coated and perfectly al dente. Adjust the consistency of the sauce if necessary: thin it with hot pasta water, or thicken it quickly by cooking down over higher heat.
• Turn off the heat, sprinkle a cup or so of grated cheese over the maccheroni, 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.

Steps:

• In a large, deep skillet over medium high heat, warm oil.
• Add onions and garlic and saute till translucent (about 5 minutes).
• Add beef and brown well, breaking meat up as it cooks.
• Stir in cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, tomatoes, tomato paste and wine. Stir, reduce heat and simmer till thick and flavors are well blended (about 1 hour).
• Adjust seasonings.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add macaroni and cook according to package directions, or till just tender to the bite (15-20 minutes). Drain well. (the original recipe calls for 2 lbs of pasta - this sounded like a huge amount to me, so use your own judgement regarding your own family's tastes).
• Place half the macaroni on a large heated platter. Sprinkle generously with cheese. Place remaining macaroni on top and sprinkle again with cheese.
• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat till it foams and turns golden brown, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon so that it does not burn.
• Pour butter over macaroni then spoon some of the meat sauce over the top.
• Serve macaroni with remaining meat sauce in a bowl alongside. Pass additional cheese and serve immediately.