Menu For Hope Prize Sponsored By Salaam and Tigers And Strawberries: A Gift of Indian Spices

Here is the first post listing the prize that Restaurant Salaam and Tigers & Strawberries are sponsoring for the fourth annual Menu For Hope event hosted by Pim at Chez Pim. The prize code number you will use when you go to first giving if you are interested in buying raffle tickets for this prize is UC06

I don’t have all of the pieces to the prize gathered in one place, so I have to post several different photographs to show all of the goodies that will be coming to the lucky holder of the winning raffle ticket. When all of the prize bits are gathered together, I will post again, with a single photograph of everything arranged artfully and aesthetically. Until then, let’s make do with the three photographs and intense verbal descriptions herein. (For better photos of the complete prize, along with descriptions of all the spices, dals and everything that will be include, go here.)

First, as you can see in the photograph above, we are offering four books, all relating to food in India. All of these books have been reviewed or at least mentioned on this blog, and all of them are excellent resources for someone who is learning to cook Indian foods.These books are all brand new, unopened and ready for you to dive into them and add your own drips and dribbles of kitchen magic as you learn to cook from them.

First up, going clockwise from the upper left corner, is Monisha Bharadwaj’s Indian Vegetarian Cooking: A Regional Guide. This is an excellent cookbook, filled not only with great recipes, but with cultural and culinary information, as well as gorgeous photographs of the food, people, land and spices of India.

Next we have Madhur Jaffrey’s From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes from the Spice Trail of India. This is one of the most fascinating of Jaffrey’s many excellent cookbooks, because she recounts the history of curry and how it has traveled around the world and transformed itself in each country where it has taken root. This is not only a cookbook to cook from, but to also read like a novel.

Speaking of reading something like a novel–I am also offering Jaffrey’s wonderful memoir, Climbing the Mango Trees, where she tells of her early life in India, where she witnessed such historical events as the partition of India and Pakistan and even more sadly, the assassination of Gandhi. This memoir is quite fascinating and reads like a novel, filled as it is with unforgettable characters and vibrant settings.

Finally comes Monisha Bharadwaj’s The Indian Spice Kitchen. I haven’t reviewed this book on my blog, in large part, because it was out of print for a while, but has finally come back into print. This makes me very, very happy, in large part because it is one of the best books to introduce cooks new to Indian food to the staple spices, legumes, flours and other ingredients of the Indian kitchen. It is encyclopedic in scope, with lots of recipes and photographs of each food item as well as its name in several Indian languages, in addition to its commonly known English name. I used to suggest this book to many of my culinary students interested in Indian food, especially those who were taking my “Introduction to Indian Spices” class where we smelled and tasted Indian spices alone and in combination, and then practiced several techniques of flavor extraction with them. This is quite simply a great book.

These books are the core of the prize, but they are not all that will come in the box from me to the lucky winner.

I am also including a masala dhaba–as pictured above. It is a traditional Indian spice box which contains seven round tins, a scooping spoon, and inner, airtight sealing lid that keep the spices from spilling from the inner containers and an outer lid. It is made from stainless steel and is like the boxes used in households all over India to keep the most commonly used spices close to hand near the stove.

It won’t come to you empty as pictured. Nope–it will come filled with fresh spices, selected by myself, to help you get started cooking Indian foods right away. In addition, I am going to throw in a selection of Indian dals and legumes–lentils, split peas and beans–so you can dive right into making filling home-style Indian vegetarian goodies as soon as your package arrives.

Finally, Hilarie at Salaam thought it would be nice if the winner had something to drink while he or she read these wonderful books and cooked, then ate their spicy Indian foods, so she is donating a lovely Stash Tea gift box of select Indian teas. This lovely box, pictured above, comes with a nice variety of teas grown in India that will make a perfect match with whatever you feel like cooking with your spices and cookbooks.

So, all together, this Gift of Indian Spices prize will consist of four books, a stainless steel spice box filled with fresh spices, a selection of Indian legumes and premium Indian tea in a decorative gift box.

I will only be able to ship to the US, due to the issue of weight. Books and beans are pretty heavy so I will have to restrict the prize to ticket holders within the United States.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section.

Gift Ideas for the Bookish Cook

What is a bookish cook?

A cook who loves books, of course!

And how do you identify a bookish cook?

When you are in said cook’s home, you will note that not only is there a huge bookshelf in the kitchen absolutely stuffed with cookbooks, but that there are bookcases in nearly every room of the house which are equally well-laden. You may also note that many horizontal surfaces in the bookish cook’s home are littered with stacks of books–especially cookbooks.

Because, for the bookish cook, cookbooks are meant to be read as much as they are meant to be cooked from.

Where normal people have a small stack of novels beside their beds for late night reading, bookish cooks will have a pile of cookbooks, food writing anthologies, cook’s memoirs and the occasional piece of fiction related to cooks, cooking or where food takes a central role.

I bet that everyone reading this blog knows of at least one such person, or is themselves a bookish cook.

So, that is why I put together a little gift guide for the bookish cook. Because, there is nothing worse than trying to figure out what a bookworm wants for theGeneric Winter Holidays. Well, in the abstract, it isn’t hard to guess–they want books, of course, but WHICH ONES? That is the overriding question of course–when you are dealing with someone who has more books than socks, then it falls to you to either take stock of the overwhelming number of titles on the shelves, in as surreptitious manner as possible, or you need to get creative.

Of course, you could always just give them a gift card to their favorite book emporium–but that is the easy way out.

No–I think it is more fun to give the bookish cook a real live book, and see their eyes light up with joy upon unwrapping it. You can just tell that he or she wants to just open the book and dive in nose-first, but they know it is impolite to do so. This means that they have to contain their enthusiasm for a time, and it is fun to watch them squirm. (I say this as a bookworm who has had to squirm more than once or twice in my life to keep from delving deeply into a newly-gifted tome when it would be impolite to do so.)

The way around the conundrum is to seek out promising new titles that your cookbook loving friends and family will enjoy.

Which is where this list comes in–these are the most interesting new titles I have come across for cookbook collectors in the past few months. The list is eclectic, in large part because I have eclectic tastes, but there is enough diversity in the list that you are bound to find at least one title which will appeal to the culinary nerds in your life.

Books for Vegetarians

Veganomicon:The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero is not just on this list because it has the coolest cookbook title ever, although the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired moniker did indeed catch my eye and intrigue me enough to glance at it and then actually purchase it. It is on this list because I frankly think it is the best vegan cookbook I have ever come across in my life which contains a higher percentage of recipes which sound not only appealing, but downright tasty to me. I am still a skeptic regarding vegan baking and the recipes here have not changed my opinion in that regard–I have yet to have more than one or two vegan baked goods which did not either taste like cardboard infused with sugar or rubber masquerading as a food item. But, many of the other recipes, especially for entrees and soups, sound quite flavorful. Eventually, I will try out some of these recipes and do a real review of this book, but until then–know that it is the only non-Chinese vegan cookbook I love enough to have to own.

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman is a great vegetarian cookbook that is on my “I want to get it, but haven’t gotten around to it yet” list, because it is just as comprehensive as his How To Cook Everything which I have gifted to any number of lucky newbie cooks. It is also a great cookbook for non-vegetarians who are either trying to eat more vegetarian meals or who are transitioning to a vegetarian diet. Bittman’s writing is clear, approachable and his recipes are simple, but always turn out tasty results. I don’t think you can go wrong with this book.

Books On Chinese Cooking

The Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco by restaurateur Cecilia Chiang is a book which I keep meaning to review, but haven’t gotten around to doing yet. The new job kind of got me into researching the cuisines of North Africa, the Middle East and Greece, so I kind of forgot about this book. Not because it is forgettable, mind you, but because I get distracted. This is a lovely Chinese cookbook with beautiful photographs which not only tells Chiang’s life story, but also gives good, solid recipes for favorites from her pioneering restaurant in California. Chiang is very good at explaining technique, and she also is very good at making every dish sound amazingly delicious, thus making you want to rush to the kitchen and make it right away. (Look for a real review of this book sometime in the New Year.)

Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlop has been reviewed here. Read the review, and check out these recipes made from it, and then run out and get the book for a friend who likes their Chinese foods full of spice and heat. And, while you are at it, get a copy for yourself, even if you don’t cook much Chinese food–the book is great reading, and you will learn a great deal of interesting stuff about Chinese culture.

Books On Foods of the Middle East

Here are two more books which will get their own, longer reviews along with posts of recipes made from them in the future. I ran across them while researching recipes to use at Salaam.

Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon by Claudia Roden is a delicious cookbook by a master storyteller, culinary historian and food anthropologist who has turned her thorough attention on the foods, folklore and cultures of the Middle East. A Jewish woman raised in Egypt, Roden has a great eye for detail, whether it involves describing the exact technique needed to accomplish a long, involved recipe, or whether she is evocatively describing the foodways of a vanishing subculture. I have read all of her cookbooks cover to cover, and am starting to cook from them–and they are all well worth it. This newest one gives a novice to the foods of the region a taste of three of the greatest food cultures of the Middle East, with plenty of recipes to entice even the most timid of cooks into the kitchen. Besides–it also has one of the prettiest book covers I have seen in a long time.

Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews by Poopa Dweck is probably one of the most gorgeous cookbooks I own, with beautiful photography and luscious prose. My only criticism is that its large format makes it hard to use in the kitchen and it makes it hard to place on a bookshelf, but it has been happy living on our coffee table for a few months now. I consult it when I want more ideas for dinner specials at Salaam–and its sensual photographs never fail to inspire me.

General Cookbooks

The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolutionby Alice Waters is the perfect book for a new cook who wants to learn the techniques of naking simple meals with fresh ingredients. I wrote a review of the book here a while back and while I said that I would never have bought the book for myself, I was glad to have read it, and would probably be buying copies for friends and family for the Winter Holiday season. I think that if there are folks on my list who would appreciate this book, there are folks on your lists who would probably like it and use it, too.

Crust: Bread to Get Your Teeth Into by Richard Bertinet looks like a great book for teaching the methods and techniques of baking the great hearth breads of Europe. And what makes it even better is that it comes with an instructional DVD–something that I think more cookbooks should come with–either a DVD or a CD-ROM, because so many culinary techniques are better shown than described, and while photographs and line drawings are of good help in some cases, in others, they fall short. It isn’t as if there isn’t technology available for DVDs in cookbooks–it is that the marketing departments haven’t caught on with the idea yet. But someday, soon, I suspect they will. I haven’t bought this book yet, but I suspect I probably will, if not for myself, then for one of the perfectionist, detail-oriented breadbakers in my life. (Y’all know who you are!)

That’s my list–somewhat short and sweet, but hopefully with enough ideas to help give you a head start on gift shopping for all of the bibliophiles and culinary nerds in your lives.

Moroccan Style Chicken with Oranges, Black Olives, and Fennel

I am not calling this a tagine, per se, because it isn’t really. But it is based on the idea of a tagine, which is a Moroccan long-simmered stew that is served over couscous. The recipe which gave me the idea for this one was based on a real, traditional Moroccan tagine which contains lemons, green olives and artichoke hearts. (Actually a reader on the internet gave me the idea of oranges and black olives, but the fennel and bell peppers were my own additions.)

This recipe is not really Moroccan (which is why I call it Moroccan-style), nor is it traditional, but it is quite good. I did it as a dinner special tonight, and it turned out very well, with many people ordering it and raving about it.

I knew I would have to run home and write the recipe down for it so I wouldn’t forget how I made it. (I don’t often forget, but sometimes I do, and that is always a very sad thing.)

I will say that this was simple to put together, and the resulting dish looks and smells fantastic, not to mention the flavor, which is complex, layered and intriguing, while still being very good.

You know, there are some flavors which are intriguing, but not in a good way. Flavors that make you go, “That is interesting, but I don’t think I want to eat any more of it.” This dish is the polar opposite of an intriguing in a bad way dish. With this one, you want to keep tasting it to try and parse out exactly what you are eating, what gives it this flavor and that aroma and this scent and that taste.

One thing I do want to write about before I give you the recipe is the importance of soaking and rinsing the brine-cured olives several times before cooking with them.

I made this dish with pitted kalamata olives in brine. That is because that is what we had at the restaurant.–I know that I perhaps should have used Moroccan oil cured olives, but there is something to be said for utilizing what you have on hand, without purchasing more ingredients.

I have found that if you soak brined olives in a change or two of warm water, then drain and rinse them well, much of the salt is removed, and what you are left with is the fruity nature of the olive itself. In this dish, when the other strong flavors are oranges and fennel–both sweet, the fruitiness of the olive is what you want to highlight. The oranges were a wonderful balance of both sweet and tart, while the fennel was both sweet and vegetal. The olives added a darker hint of richness, balancing the two types of sweetness the other main flavorings offered.

So–I definitely suggest soaking and rinsing the olives–it brings out the essential nature of the fruit much better than leaving the briny taste intact.

I have to admit to being very pleased with how this dish turned out–Hilarie liked it better than the original dish which was my leaping-off point. That made me happy–though, of course, I am wanting to try a version now with blood oranges.

Just, you know, ’cause I could.

And it would be pretty.


Moroccan-Style Chicken with Oranges, Black Olives and Fennel

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups pitted kalamata olives
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large red onions, peeled and sliced thinly (about one and a half cups)
1 teaspoon salt
6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin slices about the size of the onion slices
1 small yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut as the red pepper
2 fennel bulbs, root end trimmed off, and stems cut away, cut in thin slices–about the size of the onions
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 tablespoons Aleppo pepper (optional)
1/4 teaspoon dried ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground coriander
2 tablespoons orange zest, minced
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
2 quarts chicken broth or stock
juice of 2 navel oranges
juice of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon sugar
2 pounds boned, skinned chicken–breasts or thighs, either one, or a mixture of both (that is what I prefer)
2 navel oranges, zested, stem and blossom ends trimmed, then cut into half long wise, then into thin slices
roux blanc made from 3 tablespoons olive oil and 3 tablespoons flour, heated until it bubbles
salt and pepper to taste
More orange slices and orange zest for garnish
minced parsley for garnish

Method:

Soak the olives in warm water for at least 1 half hour, then drain and rinse in warm water. Taste–and if they are still strongly salty, repeat the soaking and rinsing process. Drain well in colander and then on paper towels.

Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven. Add onions and sprinkle with salt, and cook, stirring, until they turn lightly golden. Add the garlic, fennel seeds, bell peppers, and fennel bulbs, and cook, stirring, until they soften and begin to turn golden. Add remaining spices and orange zest, and cook until fragrant–about a minute or two.

Add chicken broth or stock, orange and lemon juices and sugar, and bring to a boil.

Add chicken meat and turn down to a simmer, and cook until chicken is done.

Remove meat and shred or cut it into bite-sized pieces. Add sliced oranges. Return to pot, bring liquid to a boil, and thicken with hot roux. When liquid thickens into a sauce, simmer, stirring constantly, for about ten minutes, then remove from heat. Correct seasoning and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve over couscous and garnish with minced parsley, orange zest and and orange slices.

A Menu For Hope 2007

It’s coming around to that time of year again–time for Menu For Hope, an event where food bloggers from around the world come together to raise money for the United Nations World Food Program. Conceived and hosted for the past four years by Pim Techamuanvivit, author of Chez Pim. Last year, the event raised over $60,000.00 for the World Food Program, and this year, we hope to raise even more.

How do we raise all of these funds?

Food bloggers, authors, restaurateurs, and food producers donate a variety of prizes to be raffled off, while readers and other bloggers buy tickets for a chance at winning whichever prizes they take a fancy to. The number of tickets you may buy are unlimited, and you can purchase tickets for as many raffle prizes as you would like.

The types of prizes range from photographic equipment, gift certificates for dinners at fantastic restaurants, delicious handmade ice cream, baskets of luscious foods and boxes of cookbooks–all the sorts of goodies that food bloggers and their readers would love.

This year, I, along with Hilarie, the owner of Restaurant Salaam here in Athens, are going to be donating a prize which I think that readers of my blog will like. In keeping with our shared interest in spices, the cuisines of the Silk Road and food history, Hilarie and I are putting together a package of goodies centered around the foods of India which I think would make a thoughtful gift for a friend or one’s self.

So, stay tuned, and as the prize bits get collected, I will photograph them and post about them before the Menu For Hope event begins on December 10. Raffle tickets will be sold from December 10-21st.

Pim has a post about Menu For Hope that includes an FAQ that answers all the relevant technical questions about how it all works, where the money goes and how it is collected. For more information check it out.

Hillbilly Ragu Bolognese: No, It Ain’t Traditional, But It Is Authentically Tasty

The first time I ever tasted a pasta sauce that could truly bear the name “ragu bolognese” was in Providence, Rhode Island in a little restaurant up on Federal Hill. That is the old Italian section of town, and literally, you can walk into any little eatery there and get fantastic Italian food–food that tasted just as good as the meals Zak ate all over Italy in his travels during his youth. I don’t remember the name of the place I tried it at, but it was small, dimly lit, and inexpensive, but the food–it was to die for.

And the ragu bolognese–the meat sauce of Bologna, Italy, was heavenly.

Later, back in class at Johnson & Wales, I learned how to make it from an Italian chef. He didn’t follow the famed recipe of Marcella Hazan–which I dare not change for fear of Internet foodies descending upon me with torches, wooden spoons and meat forks–but his method makes a sauce just as good as hers, if not slightly better, because the meats end up with a silken texture that is simply delectable.

But, over the years, I have fallen from grace, and have been known to fiddle with the sacred ragu recipes and have come up with a version I call “Hillbilly Ragu Bolognese.” It’s hillbilly because I replace the pancetta with plain old bacon from Ohio pigs, and I know that is, according to most Italian chefs, a big no-no. Smoked pork products supposedly upset the delicate balance of the ragu, but, in my opinion, and in my experience, if you are using a lightly smoked bacon, and rinse it, then pat it dry before using it, a lot of the salt and some of the smoky taste is washed away with the water. Besides–pancetta is thin on the ground around here, so bacon it became.

I also use equal parts ground beef, pork and veal. Supposedly, you should use more beef than the other two, but I think it tastes just as good my way. (Otherwise, why post the recipe, really?) Using equal amounts of all three meats makes the recipe easier to remember–I don’t have to keep arcane proportions in my head.

I am also wicked and add some dried herbs and garlic to the sauce as it cooks. Garlic, especially, supposedly messes up the flavor of the sauce, but this hillbilly thinks that a little bit of garlic, added while the meat is simmering, makes it all taste meatier. Garlic added to beef makes it beefier, pork, porkier and veal–well, more veally. And that is a good thing, in my book. It isn’t like you taste the finished sauce, and the garlic hits you–it doesn’t. What does happen is that it makes everything else taste better without making a nuisance of itself.

My recipe, just like all other bolognese recipes, starts with a sofrito, or what the French would call a mirepoix: finely diced onion, celery and carrot, cooked in a mixture of rendered pork fat (from the rinsed, and dried bacon, or pancetta, if you prefer), and olive oil, over low heat until they turn a nice golden brown and release a good bit of their vegetal juices.

In that sense, I do not break from tradition. A lot of folks might think that celery and carrot have no place in a pasta sauce, but they are wrong. They add a sweet mellowness that melts into the meat flavors, supporting them the way a corset makes a proper foundation garment for a Victorian ball gown. Without the sofrito, a ragu bolognese tastes somewhat flat, just as without a corset (and hoops), a Victorian ball gown would be a limp, pathetic bunch of fabric.

You will notice that the garlic doesn’t get cooked with the sofrito. There is a reason for that–if I were to cook it with the other vegetables, the oil would extract much more of the flavoring oils in the garlic, and then it might well be too strong and unbalance the dish. I add it later, with the meat, while it is simmering, so the oils are extracted by water, not oil, which leads to a much gentler, sweeter, less harsh garlic flavor.

After the sofrito is cooked to a nice golden brown, I add the meats, along with a generous sprinkle of salt.

The salt is necessary to help draw the juices from the meats so they can become part of the sauce. A sprinkle of dried oregano, thyme and marjoram go in now, as well as a bay leaf. (Oh, I am an infidel.)

I don’t brown them in the oil, however. Immediately after adding them to the pan, I pour enough milk into the pan to cover the bottom with about 3/4 inch of milk. Then, I break up the meat and let it simmer in the milk, and I cook it, stirring constantly, until almost all of the liquid has simmered away.

This method results in the super-silky, very fine and tender minced meats that I think make a superior ragu. Browning meat in oil toughens up the proteins in the meat, and when you are cooking ground meat, it can cause it to clump up and makes for a lumpy ragu. But, if you simmer the meats in milk, the individual bits of mince fall apart, and the milk helps tenderize them so you end up with a sauce with a very soft texture.

After the milk and meat juices have simmered away, then I add dry red wine–about 3/4 cup. The milk helps keep the acid in the wine from toughening the meats as well–and then I add some canned, diced tomatoes and a small amount of tomato paste. I never add crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce–the tomato is not the point of the sauce–the meat is–and I want it to be at center stage. Too much tomato product and it overpowers the meat flavors–too little, and the sauce lacks character. I have found that for three pounds of meat, a fourteen ounce can and a half of diced tomatoes with their juice and about three heaping tablespoons of tomato paste do the trick.

Then, I turn the heat down to low, and leaving the pan covered only by a splatter screen, I let it simmer once again until most of the liquid is gone.

At that point, in goes a cup or two of meat broth–beef is best, but chicken will do if that is all I have. (I had beef broth today, and my was it good!)

Then, I let it simmer until it is almost dry again, then finish it off with about a quarter to a half cup of heavy cream. (Once again–there are some recipes that use cream and others which do not. Mine does, and I like the results.)

I taste the sauce and if it is a little bit flat, I add a spare teaspoon of anchovy paste–which inevitably perks it right up and sends it over the edge.

Traditionally, it is served over fresh tagliatalle–but I often use the handmade fettucine from Rossi Pasta. Zak, however, prefers penne, which he can eat without tying his long, curly hair back. Because he had a stressful day, I let him have his favorite pasta shape, tradition be damned. (Which is easy for me to say since I have thumbed my nose at tradition throughout the entire recipe.) A sprinkle of the last of our fresh parsley from our deck garden, and a few shavings of Parmesan cheese finish it off, making it pretty, and even tastier, if that can be believed.

Hillbilly Ragu Bolognese

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons drippings from pancetta or bacon (If you want, you can dice up the pancetta or bacon to go in the sauce–mine went to my cat, Ozy, who was feeling poorly today, being as he is older than dirt.)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely diced onions
1/2 cup finely diced celery (I cut the strings out of mine because neither Morganna nor Zak like the texture of them)
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound finely ground sirloin
1 pound finely ground veal
1 pound finely ground pork
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon of mixed dry thyme, oregano and marjoram
1 bay leaf
about 1 cup of milk–it depends on how big your pot is, really. More or less, it won’t hurt the sauce
1 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 14 ounce cans diced tomatoes with their liquid
3 heaping tablespoons tomato paste
1-2 cups meat broth or stock–beef is best, but pork or chicken will do if that is what you have
1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
fresh roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
and freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

Method:

Heat drippings and oil in the bottom of a heavy-bottomed braising pan or Dutch oven over medium low heat.. (Cast iron is great for this.) When they are hot, add the onions, celery and carrots. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and cook, stirring, until the vegetables turn golden brown and are soft.

Add the meats, and sprinkle witih salt, garlic and herbs. Throw in the bay leaf.

Immediately add milk until the bottom of your pan is covered to about 3/4 inch in depth with milk.

Break up meat with a wooden spoon, and stir it into the milk, and simmer until none of the meat is pink anymore. If your milk all simmers away before the meat is done, add more. It won’t hurt anything to do that.

When the meat is no longer pink, add the wine, the tomato products and turn the heat way down to what we hillbillies call “granny low.” Granny low is as low as you can go without the fire going out. Cover the pan with a splatter shield and simmer until all of the liquid has simmered away. Stir now and again and don’t let the pan simmer all the way dry so that the meat burns and sticks.

Add meat broth, and once again, cook, stirring now and again, until most of the liquid is gone–this constant cooking down business should take at least three hours all told. If it doesn’t you need to add more liquids and keep cooking, and turn your fire down–I told you granny low–so that your liquids don’t cook off so fast. This is slow food, for sure.

When most of the liquid is gone, add the cream, and stir, and allow it to simmer until it lightly thickens. Taste, add salt and pepper to taste, and if it is a bit flat–add that anchovy paste–and you will notice that it immediately perks right up.

Serve over your pasta of choice, and sprinkle with the fresh parsley and cheese just before serving.