Friday night I put some finishing touches on a dish I've been experimenting with, and I think the recipe is finally ready to share with you all. As you'll recall, one of my resolutions this year is to cook more meals from scratch- and I also want to create more recipes from scratch. This first one was a success!
I'm not sure what to call this dish. The obvious title is a turkey ragu, but you can make it with any number of ground meat- I wanted to use lamb but couldn't find any at the grocery store, and I made this once before with sausage. Plus, there's a special ingredient in here that you wouldn't expect, so the title needs to be equally as special. After he finished seconds, I asked Mr. Geek's opinion on what it should be called.
Butt-Face McGee's Special
That's what he thinks we should call it. (We have interesting pet names for each other.)
I'm gonna go with Ragu Surprise- substitute in your own favorite ground meat or even mushrooms where I've used turkey, and be ready for a flavorful surprise :)
Ingredients:
-olive oil
-ground meat
-salt and pepper, to taste
-3 garlic cloves, diced
-1 medium onion, diced
-1 C finely shredded carrot (approximately 2 carrots)
-1 15oz can tomato sauce
-1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
-2 tsp tomato paste
-1/8 C parsley
-1 Tbsp basil
-1/4 C pomegranate juice
-1 Tbsp sugar
-saute the garlic in a bit of olive oil in a pan over medium heat; just as it starts to smell good...
-...add the onions and sweat them until they start to get translucent
-then add the shredded carrots
-pour in the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste and lower the heat a bit; let it simmer
-while the sauce gets all warm and yummy, season the ground turkey (or whatever it is you're using) with salt and pepper, then brown it in a little bit of olive oil in a separate pan; keep an eye on it while you spice up the sauce and make sure it's good and brown before you call it done, especially if it's turkey
-add the parsley (yes, it looks like a lot, but it's worth it)
-add the basil (and enjoy how delicious it smells)
-here's the surprise part- pour in the pomegranate juice. Just trust me on this. Add the sugar to counterbalance the tartness.
-once the meat is fully cooked, add it to the sauce with a slotted spoon (to de-grease-ify it) and then stir it in
-put the lid on, turn the heat waaaay down, and simmer while you cook some pasta
This stuff is pretty delicious, I gotta say. It took a little time to get the proportions right, and I might tweak them a little more the next time I make it. The hard part about creating a recipe is quantifying what it takes to reach the right flavors; I had a notebook next to me, writing down amounts and scratching them out to correct them- 1 Tbsp of tomato paste became two when I decided it needed more.
What's your favorite meat sauce recipe? Do you like to create dishes as you go or do you prefer the protection of a recipe?
Much love,
The Geeks
I'm not sure what to call this dish. The obvious title is a turkey ragu, but you can make it with any number of ground meat- I wanted to use lamb but couldn't find any at the grocery store, and I made this once before with sausage. Plus, there's a special ingredient in here that you wouldn't expect, so the title needs to be equally as special. After he finished seconds, I asked Mr. Geek's opinion on what it should be called.
Butt-Face McGee's Special
That's what he thinks we should call it. (We have interesting pet names for each other.)
I'm gonna go with Ragu Surprise- substitute in your own favorite ground meat or even mushrooms where I've used turkey, and be ready for a flavorful surprise :)
Ingredients:
-olive oil
-ground meat
-salt and pepper, to taste
-3 garlic cloves, diced
-1 medium onion, diced
-1 C finely shredded carrot (approximately 2 carrots)
-1 15oz can tomato sauce
-1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
-2 tsp tomato paste
-1/8 C parsley
-1 Tbsp basil
-1/4 C pomegranate juice
-1 Tbsp sugar
-saute the garlic in a bit of olive oil in a pan over medium heat; just as it starts to smell good...
-...add the onions and sweat them until they start to get translucent
-then add the shredded carrots
-pour in the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste and lower the heat a bit; let it simmer
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| photo unrelated lol |
-while the sauce gets all warm and yummy, season the ground turkey (or whatever it is you're using) with salt and pepper, then brown it in a little bit of olive oil in a separate pan; keep an eye on it while you spice up the sauce and make sure it's good and brown before you call it done, especially if it's turkey
-add the parsley (yes, it looks like a lot, but it's worth it)
-add the basil (and enjoy how delicious it smells)
-here's the surprise part- pour in the pomegranate juice. Just trust me on this. Add the sugar to counterbalance the tartness.
-once the meat is fully cooked, add it to the sauce with a slotted spoon (to de-grease-ify it) and then stir it in
-put the lid on, turn the heat waaaay down, and simmer while you cook some pasta
This stuff is pretty delicious, I gotta say. It took a little time to get the proportions right, and I might tweak them a little more the next time I make it. The hard part about creating a recipe is quantifying what it takes to reach the right flavors; I had a notebook next to me, writing down amounts and scratching them out to correct them- 1 Tbsp of tomato paste became two when I decided it needed more.
What's your favorite meat sauce recipe? Do you like to create dishes as you go or do you prefer the protection of a recipe?
Much love,
The Geeks
The pomegranate juice definitely sounds interesting- but I'm totally willing to try it. Looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteI was literally just pulling things out of my fridge and grabbed the little Pom bottle and thought- hmm, wonder what this would taste like...it's subtle- the sugar balances out the tart- but you definitely find yourself thinking "hmm, something here is different- good different"
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