Fettuccine With Lamb Ragu

I love a ragu, they are delicious and comforting and can be served as a casual, simple meal with your closest people, or elevated as a course for a dinner party or romantic dinner for two. Either way, I feel they always impress whoever is eating them. They are easy to make and the cook time is relatively fast, the most work you have to do is the prep work, because a ragu relies heavily on knife skills. Uniformity is key, because when you use ground meat you want the other ingredients to be around the same size, so each bite is packed with flavor. This particular recipe is for a lamb ragu, but you can substitute other ground meat. You can also substitiute or add other ingredients such as using leeks instead of onion, or adding fennel can bring a delicious new savory flavor to the mix.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground lamb

  • 1/2 cup diced onions

  • 1/2 cup diced celery

  • 1/2 cup diced carrot

  • 1 1/4 cup diced mushrooms

  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

  • 1 Tbs tomato paste

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

  • 1 tsp dried thyme

  • 1/2 cup white wine

  • 3/4 cup stock (chicken, beef or vegetable is fine)

  • 1/2 cup grated pecorino romano cheese

    For a recipe like this one, I recommend that you prep all the ingredients out before you start, it makes actually cooking this dish a lot more efficient.

It is most important that the onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms are diced uniformly and small. The mushrooms can be diced a little larger because they shrink down in size once cooked.

It is most important that the onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms are diced uniformly and small. The mushrooms can be diced a little larger because they shrink down in size once cooked.

Instructions:

First you want to heat a good sized saute pan on medium high heat and cook your lamb. You want to cook the lamb until it is no longer pink, around 7 minutes. Once it is ready, remove the meat and place in a clean dish using a slotted spoon so the fat stays in the pan. Once all the meat is transferred, pour the fat out of the pan, it’s ok if there’s a little leftover, but if it seems foamy or gritty, wipe the pan with a paper towel and discard.

Turn your heat down to medium heat. Add about a tablespoon of fresh oil and once that heats up, add in your onions, carrots and celery. Cook those together until the onions and celery become translucent, then add the mushrooms. Let the mushrooms cook down, this takes 5-7 minutes, and then add the lamb. Once this is all mixed together, you can go ahead and add your tomato paste, salt, pepper and half of the parsley. Mix this all together until incorporated for about two minutes, and then add your white wine. Let this cook together for two minutes, and then add in the stock. Turn your heat down to medium-low and let this cook uncovered until you are ready to add the pasta, about 10-20 minutes.

At this time, bring your aggressively salted (so it tastes like salt water) pasta water to a boil and cook your pasta. If it is dry pasta, you want to cook it 1-2 minutes under what the box says. You will be cooking the pasta directly in the sauce for a bit, so you don’t want to end up overcooking it. If you are using fresh pasta, take it out after two minutes.

Once the pasta is ready, go ahead and add it right to the pan. Do not discard the pasta water, you may need to add some to the sauce for proper consistency. Add the pecorino cheese to the pan, and toss the pasta and sauce together until it is totally incorporated and the sauce is nicely attaching itself to each noodle. If it seems loose, just continue to cook it together another couple of minutes, and if it seems like it needs more liquid, add a little bit of the pasta water. Toss in the remaining parsley and mix it together once more time. Shut the heat, and plate your pasta.

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I grated more cheese over each plate and also ground some more fresh black pepper on top of mine. If you’re feeling totally decadent, drizzle some high quality finishing oil on top.

I used gluten free fettuccine for this dish and have used vegan parmesan also in the past. There are many ways to make this dish your own from the pasta type down to the ingredients. Once you try a dish like this, you will see that the possibilities are endless, and this is a great crowd pleasing kind of dish that can meet the demands of those with dietary needs, preferences or who are just plain picky. I wish I had some of this right now!

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