The handmade Spinach Garganelli, with beef Ragù

Spring is here, but that does not mean we have to leave hearty ragus behind.  I decided to make spinach garganelli and sauce them with the ragu.  The handmade garganelli make this dish special enough to serve at any celebration meal.

At first glance they may look like penne, but garganelli are made from a rich egg dough, and in this case, cooked spinach.  Small squares of fresh pasta are placed atop a ridged implement called pettine.  The pasta is wrapped around a thin dowel called bastoncino and rolled over the ridged pettine thereby imprinting the pasta.

This ragu is extremely rich.  Both the Barolo and high concentration of beef stock give it great body, but the real secret comes from the long cooked soffritto.  What at first looks like far too many vegetables for something like this, reduces and almost melts after more than ninety minutes over a low flame.  The light yellow onion, celery and carrots darken as they caramelize and their sweetness comes to the fore.

Beef Ragu 

3 carrots, peeled, cut in 1/8th inch dice

4 stalks celery, cut in 1/8th inch dice

1 onion, cut in 1/8th inch dice

3/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 ounces pancetta, cut in 1/4 inch dice

4 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 pounds ground chuck

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup Barolo

2 cups rich beef stock

1/2  teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

salt

black pepper

Make the soffritto: over medium heat warm 3/4 cup olive oil in a heavy bottom low 4-quart pan.  Add onions and cook, stirring often until they soften and begin to color, about 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to low.  Add celery and carrots, tossing to coat and cook, stirring occasionally, until well caramelized and extremely soft, about 1 1/2 hours.

Place pancetta, garlic and 2 tablespoons olive oil in immersion blender workbowl fitted with metal knife or mini-food processor.  Whirr until reduced to a thick paste, scraping down sides of workbowl as necessary.  Add puree to vegetables and cook over medium heat, about 8 minutes, being careful not to burn garlic.  Add tomato paste and toast, about 1 minute.

Add ground beef, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, and nutmeg.  Cook, stirring to break up meat and combine ingredients until beef is browned and almost dry, about 8 to 12 minutes.  Add wine, increase heat to medium high and cook until wine has evaporated, about 10 minutes.  Add beef stock.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to gentle simmer.  Continue cooking until thickened, about 1 to 1 ½ hours.  Check for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as necessary.  Use immediately, or refrigerate 3 days or freeze two months.

8 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup semolina

2 large eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon olive oil

Thaw unwrapped spinach in strainer set over bowl.  When thawed, squeeze spinach to remove as much liquid as possible.  The spinach must be very dry.  You should wind up with roughly 3/4 cup liquid, and a scant 4 ounces of spinach.  Discard liquid.  Place drained spinach in workbowl of food processor fitted with metal blade.  Pulse 10 times to chop.  Add flour.  Pulse several times to combine.

Combine eggs, egg yolks and olive oil in small measuring cup.  Beat lightly.  With processor running pour all of the egg mixture through feed tube.  Scrape all of the egg mixture into workbowl.  Mixture will gather and form a ball, cleaning sides of work bowl.  Process 40 seconds.  Turn out onto lightly floured board, and knead about 5 minutes until smooth.  Form into  disk and wrap in plastic.  Let dough rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Line 2 trays with lint free kitchen towels and sprinkle lightly with semolina.  Cut off one quarter of dough, covering remaining dough.  Roll by hand or with a pasta machine to 1/16th inch thickness.  Using a pastry cutter or knife, cut dough into  2 inch by 2 inch squares.  Place 1 square of dough on floured pettine with one of the corners pointing toward you.  Dab a bit of water on the corner farthest from you.  Place floured bastoncino (stick) on corner of dough closest to you, and roll bottom corner of dough over it.  Continue rolling with gentle pressure to roll dough around bastoncino and form a tube.  Be certain the end corner (the wet one)  is sealed.  Slip garganello off bastoncino and place on semolina lined towel.  Repeat process until all the dough has been used.  Cover with clean kitchen towel until ready to cook.

Bring 6 quarts of water to boil in large pot.  Add 2 tablespoons coarse salt to boiling water.  Carefully drop garganelli in boiling water, and cook about 2 minutes.  Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.  Spread 1 cup ragu on the bottom of heated pasta bowl.  Slide cooked garganelli into bowl.  Add ragu and toss to coat lightly, adding a bit of pasta water if necessary.  Serve with Parmigiano.

Pettine are available from Artisanal Pasta Tools www.artisanalpastatools.com