Cooking Lola's Way

I had left over ground beef from my burger night. I normally make a meat pie, but today, I decided to try out a ragu sauce. I pulled out The Essentials of Italian Cooking to review the process that Marcella uses to cook her Bolongese sauce. It is very easy process so I set out making a ragu that has the ingredients available to me in my refrigerator and pantry. Oh, but don’t cook this unless you’re home for a day of rest and reading. It takes about 5 hours total from start to finish.

1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped celery
1/2 c chopped carrot
1/2 c chopped fennel bulb

1 T olive oil
2 T butter
3/4 lb ground beef
1 c whole milk
1 c white wine
1-1/2c Summer roasted tomatoes with garlic and olive oil*

Fresh or dry pasta of choice

Saute the onions in the butter and oil until transluscent then add the carrots, celery and fennel. Cook for several minutes and add the ground beef along with a hefty amount of salt and cracked pepper. Cook until the meat is no longer pink, add in the milk and simmer until the milk disappears. Add wine and simmer gently until it also disappears.

Pass the tomatoes through a food mill, then add them to the sauce. Get them simmering and then, turn the heat low, low, low so there is just a little bubble happening.

Check on it over the next three hours. If it starts drying out, add some water. But keep cooking for the 3 hours and make sure the water has evaporated entirely before you eat it.

Cook your pasta and add it to your sauce.

*Roasted tomatoes

I use Leslie Land’s Intensely Delicious Roasted Tomotoes recipe for canning my tomatoes. I vary it a bit though, sometimes I cook on the grill instead of in the oven.

I like burgers that are big, medium rare and full of flavor. But I’ll eat a burger that is really, really rare and like it a lot. How I like my burger affects how I cook my burgers. For those who don’t like their burgers as bloody as mine, there is a how to at the end of the recipe. I like half-pound burgers served on Elis brioche rolls. Most important on the method side is having a cold burger patty cooking on very, very hot surfaces. My add-in amounts vary – you need to experiment with your own taste.

Basics:
Organic grass fed ground beef from your local farmer friend
Salt
Pepper
Grapeseed oil for drizzling prior to cooking

Add-ins level 1:
Garlic, fresh crushed,
Wosterchire, dash per ½ lb
Soy, dash per ½ lb
Panko flakes
Egg, optional depending on the fattiness of the beef, you also may not need an entire egg in which ase you need to beat it and add a couple of tablespoons to bind the leaner meat together.

Add-ins level 2:
Any of the following to mix in to the beef mixture
Minced jalapeno, minced shallots, minced, red onion, cilantro

To top it
Blue cheese
Other cheese
Carmelized onions
Pickled onions
Pickled peppers
Avocado

Rules to follow:

• Gather your toppings first, cook, chop, crumble
• Get all your ingredients prepped prior to mixing up the burgers
• Your burger patty should look like a bialy not a bagel or baseball
• Make sure your patties are cold and your cooking surface really hot
• If cooking inside, there will be lots of smoke. Do not be afraid, have a fan ready

As mentioned above, whether cooking on the grill or stovetop or broiler, make sure the surface is really hot and the burger patties really cold. If you’re cooking them in the broiler, heat a cast iron pan several inches from the broiler for 15 minutes prior to cooking the patties.

Chill a cold metal bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes. Add your beef, salt, pepper and all the add-in ingredients you’ve selected from Level 1/2. Note if you need egg, definitely use panko flakes if you’re using the egg, add 1-2 tablespoons Mix with your hands until blended and form patties approximately 1/2lb burger meat per person. form the patties by creating a disc shape and putting a slight indent into the middle = like a bialy, not a bagel.

Sprinkle salt and a little oil on the top and this side is the side that goes down on the hot surface.

Chill the burgers if you’re grill is not ready or you didn’t follow the earlier instructions to have all the other things ready by the time you’re ready to put the burgers on the grill, under the broiler or into the skillet.

Cooking:
Get out of your mind time. That really can mess up a good burger. You need to have the really hot surface and the really cold meat connect, form a good crust on that first side. Get down and look at your burger. By crust, I mean that your burger meat is going to connect together and tighten and cook and seal in the juicy, not cooked meat inside. Once your first side has that crust formed, flip it. Add your cheese. Wait and check for the crust on the other side. Pull off the burgers sooner rather than later.

For the guests who like them a little more done. Cook them on the first side the same way, then leave them cooking on the second side longer and if you can move them off the really hot part of the grill then do so. A minute or two should do.

Toward the end of the day, I sometimes stand in front of the open refrigerator staring in. Vacant mind, no thoughts, nothing seems to go together. Sometimes I wonder, why did I leave the culinary comfort of New York City? That is when you close the door and stand there for a little bit. Then you reopen the door and look back in with a more investigative approach to the contents. Because, let’s face it, you live in the middle of nowhere, with few good restaurants, you’re broke so you can’t go to those restaurants anyway and you’re not going to get into the car and drive 20 minutes to get anything, oh, and, you have no cash so you can’t order a pizza because they don’t take checks. Gives you a whole new resolve…

Ingredients

Orecchiette (or other pasta shape)
Olive Oil
Purple Kale, washed
Onion, small dice
Garlic, minced
Red pepper flakes
Walnuts, toasted and chopped
Blue Cheese, crumbled

Slowly sweat the onions in olive oil. After about 6 minutes, add garlic, cover. Let cook on low heat.

Boil water, salt it. Add kale. Stir. Remove kale with slotted spoon after about 8 minutes. Drain into bowl. Admire the lovely color of the water. Chop it up into little bits and add to the onions and garlic. Salt and add red papper flakes to taste.

Add pasta to boiling water and notice how the pasta disappears into the dark purple water. Stir and cook until al dente, around 10-11 minutes. Drain, add to pasta gently tossing. Add to plates, top with blue cheese and walnuts… in that order. Serve and eat.