not just any ragú

In the January 9th issue of the New York Times, Margaux Laskey published an article called, "The "Gold Standard" Meat Sauce." Ms. Laskey was referring to the late Marcella Hazan Bolognese style meat sauce. 

After reading her article, I got inspired to make Ms. Hazan's ragú, but instead of beef, I was going to use ground venison. Someone had given me ground vension, but I couldn't decide what to do with it. It sat in my freezer until I got the idea to use it for this ragú.

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The ingredients are pantry staples and a bit different than regular tomato sauce. There's no garlic in this ragú. There is, however, butter, milk and white wine. As I estimated I had almost two pounds of venison, I doubled Ms. Hazan's recipe. Instead of using an earthenware pot, which I did have, I didn't feel a double recipe would fit. While my LeCrueset would suffice, I wanted to be able to go to the gym. Therefore, the crock pot seemed like an idea choice. 

I started chopping my ingredients early in the morning and had it in the crock pot by 8 am.  By the time I returned home, the meat sauce was done. All I had to do was cool it down and refrigerate. I didn't have time to locate fresh pasta noodles such as fettuccine, so I purchased Lidia Bastianich's rigatoni. It was the perfect shape to stand up to this sturdy sauce.

That evening, the sauce was gently reheated and tossed with the pasta. It was delicious with the vension. My husband thoroughly enjoyed this meal. Today I  brought some to my daughter and son-in-law's house and they too liked the vension ragú. Although my granddaughter was eyeing it up, she's a bit too young for this to be her first taste of pasta, but if she could....

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