Episode Six: Beef Ragu with Ravioli

While I am often miserable at finding and selecting good recipes, C seems to have a knack for knowing which recipes will work well.  So, when we decided that a Ragu would be a tasty dinner, he promptly found this recipe on the Taste of Home website.  He printed it out, and I ran with it... with some success!

Beef Ragu with Ravioli
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 pound plum tomatoes, chopped
1 cup beef broth
1/2 cup red wine
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package (20 oz.) refrigerated cheese ravioli
Grated Parmesan cheese


Preparation:
1. In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.  Add the tomatoes, broth, wine, tomato paste, rosemary, sugar, garlic and salt.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.


2. Cook ravioli according to package directions; drain.  Serve with meat sauce.  Sprinkle with cheese if desired.


Confession: When I was growing up, I loved my mom's food.  Only recently have I realized that loving mom's cooking means that I have a relatively high salt tolerance (Don't worry, Mom - that's not really a bad thing).  This also means that dishes which do not contain much salt taste a bit flavorless to me.  I have no problems with salty food even now - but I am starting to appreciate dishes in which I can taste all the individual flavors.  This is one of those dishes.


Because the tomatoes are fresh instead of canned, the salt content is much lower than what I am used to having.  This had the result of producing a very fresh, garden-vegetable flavor in the sauce which sort of threw me off, but I liked it all the same.  I used fettuccine instead of ravioli at C's request, as he thought the sauce would hold better on those noodles.  I think that the cheese in the ravioli would have added that extra detail of saltiness that I was missing; as it was, I found myself adding a lot of Parmesan to my dish.  Overall, though, we rated it a success.


Newb: 4  Food: 2  Ricotta: 1


♥ Ashley