Bolognese sauce for your perfect spaghetti

So now that you can all make perfect pasta, you just need a good meat sauce to go with it, right?

This one comes from home. Every couple months or so, a giant pot appears on the stove and the result is delicious pasta sauce in the freezer for weeks. I'm not really sure where this recipe came from, but it's a pretty convincing traditional bolognese.

Here's what you need:

- 1 large onion, finely chopped

- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

- 3 celery stalks, chopped

- 1 or 2 carrots, thinly sliced

- 2 lbs ground beef

- 1 large tablespoon of tomato paste

- 1 large can crushed tomatoes

- 1 cup red wine

- 1 cup beef stock

- 1 cup of milk (optional)

- Olive oil, salt and pepper

- Thyme, oregano, pinch of cinnamon, bay leaf

- Teaspoon or so of sugar

* In a large pot, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and begin cooking your mirepoix (celery, carrot, onion)

* When the onion becomes translucent, add the garlic and continue to cook

* When the garlic begins to sweat, add your beef, season, and cook until no longer pink

* When cooked, add the tomato paste, can of tomatoes, and mix well

* Deglaze the pot with red wine and add pinches of thyme, oregano, cinnamon, and your bay leaf

* After allowing the wine to reduce slightly, add the beef stock and milk (or water if necessary)

* Add the sugar, seasoning to taste, and simmer for as long as you like! (at least an hour)
* When done, the sauce should be thick and meaty, without a lot of liquid

You can make this days in advance and freeze it if you like. It's also a great sauce for your homemade lasagna!

GG

Cooking 101: Pasta

I'm always surprised when someone doesn't know how to cook. That being said, I don't think that everyone needs to know how to churn out perfect cheese souffles or Christmas hams. I do think however that one should at least be able to feed themselves, and maybe even another person too, without the need of a can opener and a microwave!

Let's start with pasta. Spaghetti and tomato sauce is one of those easy dishes that can just as easily become mush in red sauce. It is very easy to overcook pasta, but 'Al dente' is the only way to go. Anything cooked past that belongs with mushy peas in a glass bottle with a baby on it.

Begin by boiling liberally salted water - a lot of it - in a covered pot. Using a big pot with a lot of water helps the pasta heat evenly and keeps it from clumping. By seasoning the water, the pasta will absorb some salt while cooking, and don't worry, it won't taste salty.

Once boiling, add the pasta and lower the heat slightly. Knowing how much pasta to make just comes with experience. Anyone who's made pasta before knows that an unwatched pot always boils over. Cook your pasta until it's soft but with a firm core, stirring often. I slightly under-cook my pasta because I always finish it with sauce in a saute pan.

While your pasta is cooking, get your sauce ready. I always like to quickly saute some mushrooms, onions, and/or zucchini in olive oil before warming my sauce in the same pan. Little things like this always help pick up an otherwise boring dish, especially when you're not using Nona's bolognese. Prepping the sauce while your pasta is cooking means that your pasta won't sit around and clump up. Traditionally, there should be enough sauce to coat the pasta, not for it to swim in; but when the sauce is delicious, I always like to add a bit more.

When ready, drain your pasta well. Do not rinse! When you rinse it, you rinse away the starch that helps the sauce stick. If you're making carbonara, always keep some of the cooking water to add moisture. There's no need to add olive oil to your pasta now. Adding oil now only makes the noodles slippery and keeps the sauce from sticking - plus there's already oil in your sauce.

Add your pasta to the pan and incorporate it into the sauce with tongs. Saute just long enough for the noodles to finish cooking and serve immediately. Finish it up with some real Parmesan and maybe some sun-dried tomatoes. Just that easy!

GG

History, Sugar Coated

As many of you know, there was once a time when sugar was the most expensive and difficult to obtain of white powders consumed recreationally. As I sit at a cafe sipping my 3 euro espresso after yet another lunch of sweet beets, I can't help but think of what a wonderful little thing this sugar is, and how often I take it for granted. Between sugar trips, I nervously and frantically ponder how it came to be that I'm able to consume sugar in France in first place. As an 18th century pickpocket however, I do lament current sugar prices, as it is much more elementary to purloin sugar for specie than silverware and bone china. I jest.

Like with so many old commodities, sugar tells a pretty interesting story. By tracing the history of sugar, you trace a 'recent' history of the East and West, through conquest, trade, and colonization.

It's thought that sugarcane originated in Polynesia and spread to India. After India was invaded in the 6th century by Persia, sugar eventually made its way to the Middle East through subsequent invasions of Persia by Arab armies. The Arabs in turn carried it with them as they conquered North Africa and Spain.

Flash forward a couple years to the 11th century, when sugar became known to Western Europe by means of the Crusades. It's likely that sugar became a hit because crusading is known to build up quite an appetite. The uninvited guests were probably happy to partake in the consumption of a sweet treat or two.

Sugar continued to expand throughout Europe in the following centuries, but still remained a very expensive luxury item. Honey (which was still expensive), or more likely, fruit, was otherwise used for sweetening food. Eventually sugarcane made its way to the New World with Columbus, who got it by means of a fling with the ruler of the Canary Islands, where he made a quick stop before hopping the old Atlantic.

As for France, they were forced to rely on British imports of sugar because of the Kingdom's control of the Caribbean. Sugar was very heavily taxed, and so was the rum that resulted from it. In 1747, sugar beet was first used as a source of sugar, but cane sugar still predominated until the Napoleonic wars, when Britain blocked sugar from the rest of Europe. Napoleon, not wanting any of it anyway, single-handedly started the beet sugar industry, which still provides as much as 30% of the world's sugar.

I realize that I've now made two separate drug references in two consecutive posts. Don't worry Mom, everything is fine in Paris.

GG

The Urban Gardener

Lately I've been hearing a lot about urban gardening for some reason. Personally, when I hear the term 'urban gardening' I think of plants covered in graffiti, million dollar rooftop jungles, or hippie co-ops. Really, it's just about doing a little something with the living space that you have. I'm definitely no environmental activist, but I see only benefits from growing some of your own vegetables, fruits, and herbs.

In our little French apartment we have enough room for us, but even a fly on the wall makes it start to feel cramped. Clearly, we really don't have room for food-bearing house plants.

What we do have, are nice Parisian window ledges. Most of the big ones here feature beautiful plants and/or flowers. Seeing as our ledge is as wide as the average French male, and we both have a penchant for killing flowers in record time, we thought it was a good opportunity to have a few legal herbs. While we obviously won't be making any extra income from our plants, or having any farm-to-table buffets, our little plants have already proven to be a fruitful idea - chive in omelets, cilantro in pico de gallo, homemade pesto, rosemary-infused olive oil, and cherry tomatoes in salads.

There's a ton of info out there about urban gardening - what plants are good for what conditions, etc. We have a fair bit of light coming into our apartment, so my only challenge is remembering to keep them watered. It's really nice to have fresh herbs available all the time. I think days of rushing to the store before dinner to buy expensive and enormous bunches of herbs that end up wilting away (or using dried ones) are over. They also help me to think creatively about meals and keep me excited to prepare them.

Cilantro, chive

 Rosemary, cherry tomato, basil, and lots of string to keep them on the 4th floor

Give it a go

GG

Summer goat cheese and beet salad

As much as I love my entrecote de boeuf and aligot, the cruel Parisian heat lately has finally and completely annihilated my desire to go anywhere near meat. Terrible. Though as a young lad I would have been more likely to eat an earthworm than a beet, I now think they're great. Anyway, this one comes to me from one of the Eternal Interns, whose mother makes this weekly in the summer. Beets are really popular in France thanks to Napoleon, and they're easy to find pre-cooked and vacuum sealed. This recipe couldn't get easier and it's nice and light. Now it's become one of my lunch time go-to meals.

Here's what you need for 2 or more people:

- 4 beets (the pre-cooked ones are great if you can find them)

- A couple ounces of goat cheese (or however much you'd like to use)

- The equivalent of a bag of mixed greens or arugala

- Olive oil

- Balsamic vinegar

- High quality grain or Dijon mustard (Maille old style is my favorite for this)

- Half a cup or so of walnuts - coarsely chopped

- Tablespoon or so of honey

- Salt and pepper

* Boil the beets in salted water until they're fork tender (or bake if you prefer) the skin will come right off after about 15-20 minutes - cut into bite-sized pieces

* On a baking sheet, spread out the walnuts, drizzle with a little honey, and bake them at 350 for about 10 minutes

* For the dressing, grab a small bowl, whisk a few tablespoons of balsamic with about a tablespoon of mustard, stirring well as you slowly add about an equal portion of olive oil - you'll have to taste it as you go to get the proportions right - then season with salt and pepper

* Spread out your arugula or mixed greens on your serving dish, and simply top with beets, crumbled goat cheese, and toasted walnuts

This is another one of those recipes that's easily customizable. When it cools off I'll have it with a giant steak.

GG