Pappardelle with meat and tomato sauce
The last week hasn’t been the greatest and for various reasons food blogging hasn’t been top of the agenda, but we did manage one decent evening meal and this was it.
I used fresh pappardelle (bought in Waitrose) and made a minced beef and tomato sauce, with a celery, pancetta, onion, garlic and carrot soffritto base and with chopped basil added n at the end of the cooking period. One thing I like to do with sauces like this is to add in some milk during the cooking time. It is something that I think is quite common it Italian meat-based sauces, this is something that Marcella Hazan writes about in her recipes. It helps reduce the acidity of the tomatoes and really does enrich the sauce.
Once the sauce was ready, I added the cooked and drained pasta and served the dish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
These basic sauces are very useful, everyone should have them in their repertoire.
You’re right, I often put a tablespoon of milk into a meat based sauce just because my Italian mother in law taught me to do so! This a great recipe and you stuck to the Italian version (even though if I use garlic I don’t use onion and vice versa!) This is also a favourite in my house because it’s so easy yet so satisfying!