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Old 12-20-2005, 06:29 AM
adsman adsman is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Snowbound in the Alps
Posts: 505
Default Re: The Official OOT Cookbook.

My Italian girlfriends grandmothers pasta sauce.

Ingredients
1kg mince
1 large onion
1 large carrot
2 sticks of celery
3 cans of diced tomatoes
red wine
1 litre of stock, (I just make my own with some left over vegetables)
2 cloves of garlic
rosemary and thyme


Dice the vegetables very finely. This is the hardest bit. Little tiny cubes. Heat a pot with the best extra virgin olive oil you've got. When hot cook the celery and onion togther. When well cooked but not brown, add the carrot. Lower the heat and simmer this without burning it for as long as you can, (15-20 minutes, the longer the better)

Add the mince and stir until browned. Keep stirring until all the juices have evaporated and the mixture is very dry and hot. This is key. You don't want to burn it but It has to be dry. Make a little hole in the center and wait a moment to see if any liquid appears. If there is still liquid, keep cooking the fecker.
When it's dry and hot and ready to go bad, add some red wine, a cup should do it. You want the wine to evaporate, leaving the taste of the wine behind. Add the cans of tomatoes and about half the stock. Bring to a boil and simmer.
After a couple of hours, (add more stock progressively as it evaporates) pour about a cup and a half of that really good olive oil into a seperate pot. Add the whole garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme. Simmer this over a low heat for about half an hour. Leave to cool. Add the oil to the sauce. Simmer for another hour or so. Leave to sit, (I usually eat it the next day)

Real Italian grandmothers know best.
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