Bloody Mary Sauce with Bucatini Pasta

To download a copy of the recipe for Bloody Mary Sauce with Pasta, click HERE.

A recent post that featured chicken sauce served with linguini  received a great response from readers. Today’s recipe is for another sauce that’s both delicious and just a bit unusual. It’s based on the unique flavors of a classic Bloody Mary, and is quite easy to make from scratch.

Some Cook’s Notes before we begin.

• The base sauce used in this recipe is an easy tomato sauce we’ll make from scratch. If you prefer not to make your own tomato sauce and want to purchase a jar of sauce instead, that will work also. You’ll need about three cups of the base sauce.

• Although the sauce can be used with any pasta you like (or anywhere else you might want to use a good tomato sauce), in this post I’ve selected bucatini. If you love pasta and have never had bucatini, you’re missing out on a real treat. It’s a long pasta, a good bit thicker than spaghetti, that has a small hollow through the middle. This makes the bucatini a thick-walled tube that has a wonderful mouth-feel and that holds sauce very well. (The photo at right shows what this looks like.)

• As you might expect, one of the ingredients of Bloody Mary Sauce is vodka. If you prefer to make a Virgin Mary sauce, just replace the 1 cup of vodka with ½ cup of tomato juice, and skip the cooking-down-the-vodka step.

• This recipe makes about three cups of sauce. That’s twice as much as you’ll need to sauce one pound of pasta. The recipe provides an overview of the canning process for saving the unused sauce (or for saving the entire batch for future use). Refer to other published sources for additional details.

This recipe makes about three cups of sauce.

We’ll start by making the base sauce:

Put the contents of a 28 ounce can of tomatoes, including the juice, into a non-metallic bowl. You can either use crushed tomatoes or, if using whole tomatoes, crush them with your hand.

Add 1 small grated carrot; 1 large rib of celery, chopped; 1 Tbsp chopped onion; 4 minced cloves of garlic; 9 ounces of tomato paste (that’s 1-1/2 six ounce cans); 1-1/2 tsp dried basil; 1 Tbsp sugar; and a pinch of chili powder to the bowl.

Put the mixture through a food mill. (If your food mill has more than choice of orifice plate, use the plate with the widest holes.) Scrape the underside of the orifice plate into the milled mixture. Discard the remaining solids in the bowl of the food mill.

Add 2 tsp of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste to the milled mixture and stir till combined. Set aside till needed.

Next, we’ll use the base sauce to make the Bloody Mary sauce.

Slice 2 ribs of celery very thin.

Warm 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a deep skillet. Add the celery and cook till tender but not mushy.

Add 1 cup of vodka. (Be careful: the mixture may flame up. If it does, just give it a moment and the flame will go out.) Put the skillet back on stove and reduce to about half volume.

Reduce heat to low. Add 1-1/2 cups of the base sauce; the juice of 1 large lemon; 1-1/2 tsp hot sauce; 3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce; 3/4 tsp celery salt; pinch paprika; 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper; 3/4 tsp prepared horseradish; and 1 tsp sugar.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Now you’ll either want to store half of the sauce for later use if you’re using it for the pasta right away, or to store all of the sauce for later use.

Transfer the sauce you’re saving to one or two 1-1/2 cup canning jars that have been sterilized, leaving ¼” head room (the air space at the top of the jar). On each jar, place a lid that has been processed in hot water as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Apply a ring seal to each jar.

Place the jars into a pot of hot water that completely covers the jars. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for about 40 minutes.

Remove the jars from the water. (Canning tongs are helpful for this.) Allow to cool. As the jars cool, you should hear the lids make a popping sound as they seal the jars, caused by the vacuum that forms in the head space above the sauce in the jar.

When you’re ready to cook the pasta:

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Drop 1 pound of bucatini into the water and let the water return to a boil. 

Cook the bucatini one minute less than recommended on the package.

While the pasta is cooking, begin heating 1-1/2 cups of the sauce in a skillet.

Drain the pasta, reserving ½ cup of the starchy pasta water. Add the pasta to the sauce in the skillet and mix to combine.

Add some of the pasta water to the skillet, starting with ¼ cup and adding more only if needed for texture. Mix until everything is combined. Cook till the pasta is done.

Garnish with parsley to serve.

To download a copy of the recipe for Bloody Mary Sauce with Pasta, click HERE.

Serve this to the pasta-lovers you know, add a Caesar salad on the side for good measure, and you’ll keep all them very happy!

Visit again next week for another delicious recipe! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Chicken Piccata Ravioli

To download a cookbook-style copy of the recipe for Chicken Piccata Ravioli, click HERE.

A meal of homemade ravioli can be as satisfying to make as it is to serve and eat. It also affords some great opportunities to be creative with your fillings and sauces.

With that in mind, today’s recipe takes Chicken Piccata, that simple and very delicious restaurant favorite of browned chicken topped with a white wine and lemon sauce (and that is often served over pasta), and uses it as the basis for a unique, fresh ravioli dish. It’s a simple idea – the chicken is used to make the filling, and the wine and lemon sauce is used to top the finished ravioli – that’s a whole new way to look at ravioli.

Some Cook’s Notes before we begin.

• In the recipe below, we’ll be making our own pasta dough from scratch. It’s fun and not at all difficult, but if you still prefer not to make your own, store-bought wonton wrappers will work just fine.

• There are many ways of rolling and cutting pasta dough for ravioli. In the recipe below, I hand rolled the dough and used a ravioli stamp, but if you prefer other ways – rolling with a pasta machine, cutting with round cookie cutters, using a ravioli attachment on a stand mixer, etc. – feel free. The right way is any way that works for you.

• When we make the pasta dough in the recipe below, I combined the ingredients in a bowl. Some people do prefer the more traditional way of mixing the ingredients directly on the counter. As was the case with rolling and cutting the ravioli, there’s more than one way, and you should use any you prefer.

This recipe makes about 24 ravioli.

We’ll start by making the pasta dough. (Skip this step if you’re using wonton wrappers.)

In a bowl, combine 2 cups all-purpose flour; ½ tsp salt; and 1 tsp dried sage.  Make a well in the center of the mixture.

Add 1 tsp of olive oil and 3 egg substitute eggs.

Mix until a dough forms. (Add a little more flour if the dough seems too moist, but not more than 1 Tbsp.) Knead by hand or using the dough hook of a mixer for about five minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.

Cut the dough into quarters and wrap in plastic wrap. Let dough rest for at 20 – 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, begin making the filling.

Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3 Tbsp chopped shallots or onions, and sauté until translucent but not brown.

Add ½ pound of ground chicken and ¼ tsp dried thyme, and cook until slightly browned. Add ¼ cup of dry white wine (Chardonnay or similar) and ¼ cup low-sodium chicken broth, and cook for about three minutes, stirring often.

Remove the chicken mixture from the heat and mix ¼ cup of plain, fresh bread crumbs.

Using a blender or food processor, grind the chicken mixture till it has a slightly coarse texture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a bowl, let cool, and mix in 1 egg substitute egg to make the filling.

While the filling is cooling, make the piccata sauce as described below.

Using the same pan you used to cook the chicken, reduce the heat to medium, and heat 1 Tbsp olive oil. When heated, sauté 2 chopped garlic cloves until aromatic, 30 seconds – 1 minute.

In a separate bowl, combine ¾ cup low-sodium chicken broth; 3 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice; and ½ cup dry white wine.

Add the broth mixture and 2 tsp all-purpose flour to the pan, and cook until thickened, about 3 minutes, stirring often.

Stir in 1 Tbsp dried sage and 1 Tbsp capers. Cook another 2 – 3 minutes.

Stir in 1 Tbsp butter substitute, remove from heat, and set aside.

Now let’s make the ravioli! (Repeat the following steps for each of the dough quarters. Keep the unused dough covered to prevent drying out.)

On a well-floured surface, roll to a thickness of about 1/16”.

Cut into desired shapes.

Apply egg substitute to the edges of half of the shapes.

Place 1 tsp of filling on half the shapes.

Place an identical shape on top, pressing down onto the egg. Press down edges with a fork or fingers to seal.

If using a ravioli stamp, press out each ravioli. Cook in salted boiling water (usually about 7 minutes but check often for doneness) or freeze for later use.

To serve, plate the ravioli and top with the sauce. Garnish with parsley. Serve with a salad or vegetable side dish.

To download a cookbook-style copy of the recipe for Chicken Piccata Ravioli, click HERE.

Whether you’re making it for yourself or for company, this is a dinner you’ll be proud to serve. Bon appétit!

We hope you’ll visit here again next week for another kitchen-tested, home-cook ready recipe. Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Steamed Carrot Noodles with Ground Turkey Bolognese

For a copy of this recipe for Steamed Carrot Noodles with Ground Turkey Bolognese, click HERE.

 

Our mission this week: rearrange the parts of classic recipe into something different, but just as good. Today’s recipe, Steamed Carrot Noodles with Ground Turkey Bolognese, takes a classic beef stew and transforms it in several ways:

• The beef is replaced by ground turkey to reduce the fat.

• The carrots that are normally part of the stew have been pulled out, cut into ribbons (“noodles”), steamed until tender and mixed with regular pasta noodles.

• The remaining stew ingredients (minus the potatoes, which are no longer needed since we’re using the noodles) are used to make a Bolognese that will top the combined noodles.

The end result is a hearty meal that’s colorful and fun, and so good it not only might get you some new Facebook friends, it might even get someone who unfriended you to come back. ;-)

Some Cook’s Notes before we begin.

• The steamed “carrot noodle” concept was inspired by seeing Alton Brown use raw carrot noodles in a very nice looking cold carrot slaw. It got me wondering what could be done with them if they were cut down smaller and cooked to a texture similar to that of pasta noodles. Thank you, Chef Brown!

• In the recipe and photos, I’ve made a the amount of noodles needed for four servings, but about three times as much Bolognese as is needed. The simple reason behind this is that Bolognese is one of those highly useful items to keep on hand in the freezer for future use. Make the extra, and you’ll find what to do with it. (If, after all this, you still want to make only the four servings you need, just reduce the quantities of the Bolognese ingredients proportionately. However, if you do that and sometime soon find yourself wanting to use some Bolognese  in a recipe, don’t’ say I didn’t warn you.)

• In the photo at the top, the carrot noodles with Bolognese are shown served with an easy-to-make beer batter herbed bread stick. That recipe will be featured in a very near future post.

This recipe makes four servings, plus the extra Bolognese.

First, we’ll prepare the carrot noodles.

Trim and peel 8 large carrots. Cut in half lengthwise, and then into pieces about 2” long.

Using a mandolin, slice the carrots on the thinnest setting.

Working in stacks, cut the sliced carrots in half to make the carrot “noodles.”

Set aside till ready to cook.

To make the Bolognese:

Prepare your mise en place: 8 cloves garlic, minced...

2 green peppers, chopped...

2 medium onions, chopped; 6 large stalks of celery, chopped; 2 Tbsp fresh thyme; and ½ cup chopped parsley, plus extra for garnish.

Heat 3 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet. When it is heated, add the onions and saute till translucent.

Add the garlic and cook till aromatic, about another 30 seconds to a minute.

Add the green pepper and celery and cook until tender and slightly browned, about another eight minutes.

Add 2 pounds of ground turkey, 2 Tbsp Worcestershire, 2 Tbsp kosher salt, ½ Tbsp fresh ground black pepper, and 1 tsp hot sauce. While cooking, use a ladle to drain some of the fat if it seems excessive.

Cook till the turkey is browned, about 25 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of the pot.

Add 5 cups of tomato sauce, one 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes (including the liquid from the can), 3 bay leaves and the thyme, and simmer for about 15 minutes.

When done, cover and remove from heat.

Making the combined noodles:

While the Bolognese is simmering, cook 8 ounces of pasta noodles as per the directions on the package.

Place a colander in a bowl and drain the noodles. Transfer enough of the hot noodle water to steam the carrots back into the pot; discard the rest of the water. Put the noodles into the bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and set aside.

Using the hot noodle water, steam the carrot noodles over high heat until they are about the same texture as the pasta noodles. Check them often; the cooking time will vary widely depending on the exact thickness of the carrots and other factors.

Combine the noodles and the carrots. Season and drizzle with olive oil.

Divide the combined noodles into four servings on plates.

Top the noodles with the Bolognese. (Remember to remove the bay leaves first!) Add some chopped parsley for garnish, and you’re all set!

For a copy of this recipe for Steamed Carrot Noodles with Ground Turkey Bolognese, click HERE.

 

Hope you enjoy this delicious twist on a classic beef stew! And that you’ll visit here again next week for another great recipe. Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)