Chef Billy Parisi - Any Pasta Lover NEEDS to Know How to Make this Sauce
Pasta alla Genovese is a traditional Italian meat sauce known for its rich, slow-cooked flavors. The recipe focuses on using beef, onions, and herbs to create a tender and flavorful dish. The process begins with browning pancetta to render fat, followed by searing beef chuck roast and beef shanks for added depth. Caramelizing onions in batches enhances their flavor, while celery and carrots provide supporting flavors. Tomato paste and cherry tomatoes add a hint of acidity and umami. Fresh herbs like thyme and basil are used instead of bay leaves for a subtle aroma. The sauce is braised with white wine and beef stock for several hours to concentrate flavors. The dish is completed by cooking pasta in the sauce, allowing it to absorb the rich flavors. The sauce can be stored and reused, making it a versatile and comforting meal.
Key Points:
- Use beef shanks with marrow for richer flavor.
- Caramelize onions in batches for deeper taste.
- Add tomato paste and cherry tomatoes for acidity and umami.
- Use fresh thyme and basil instead of bay leaves for subtle aroma.
- Cook pasta in sauce to absorb flavors, enhancing the dish.
Details:
1. 🍝 Discovering Pasta Alla Genovese
- Pasta Alla Genovese is a well-kept secret among Italian meat sauces, known for its distinctive appeal and complex flavors.
- The dish features a slow-cooked sauce made from onions, beef, and herbs that breakdown into a tender mixture, typically served with pasta and Parmigiano cheese.
- Traditionally, the preparation involves a lengthy cooking process that enhances the depth of flavor, suggesting techniques that can be explored for efficiency.
- The history of Pasta Alla Genovese traces back to the Liguria region in Italy, offering a rich cultural backdrop that enriches the dining experience.
- Innovations in the traditional recipe could focus on modern cooking techniques or ingredient substitutions to cater to contemporary tastes.
- There are opportunities to explore variations such as vegan substitutes or different pasta pairings to diversify the dish's offering.
2. 🥓 Preparing Panetta and Beef
2.1. 🥓 Cooking Panetta
2.2. 🥩 Preparing Beef
3. 🧅 Caramelizing Onions and Prepping Vegetables
- Utilizing a Rondo pan allows for a perfect sear on beef without needing to brown in batches, maximizing efficiency.
- After 3-4 minutes of cooking beef, flip it to achieve a desirable brown crust, then continue cooking on medium heat for 8 minutes for optimal browning.
- Prepare six large yellow onions, over 5 pounds in total, as the main ingredient along with beef, emphasizing the importance of onion flavor when browned.
- Slice onions by removing ends, halving, peeling, and julienning them for even cooking and flavor distribution.
- Yellow onions, compared to red or white, offer more flavor once browned, enhancing the dish's taste profile.
- Cook onions in two batches to achieve deep caramelization, which enhances the flavor significantly compared to cooking them all at once.
- Caramelizing onions over medium heat for 10 minutes, then lowering to low heat for an additional 20 minutes, ensures maximum flavor extraction.
- Scraping the fond from the pan during cooking enhances the dish's flavor by incorporating the caramelized bits.
4. 🍷 Braising the Meat with Wine and Herbs
- Begin by peeling and dicing two medium-sized carrots and two ribs of celery, using a food processor to save time. Save the veggie scraps for future stock preparation.
- Caramelize onions to become the hero of the dish alongside the beef, enhancing their flavor deeply.
- Add diced celery and carrots, then sweat them for about 10 minutes at medium heat without browning. This step focuses on maintaining the depth of flavor from the caramelized onions.
- Incorporate two tablespoons of tomato paste to add color, acidity, and deepen umami flavor. Slightly caramelize the paste until it turns rust-colored, which takes about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Use fresh thyme, six to eight sprigs, instead of bay leaves for a more subtle flavor profile.
- Add 10 to 12 torn fresh basil leaves and 10 to 12 cherry tomatoes to enhance the tomato flavor further.
- Deglaze with about 2 cups of dry white wine, like Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio, and reduce to half a cup. This reduces the acidity while concentrating the rich flavor of the wine, crucial for a balanced braised dish.
5. 🍝 Finishing the Sauce and Cooking the Pasta
- Add about 1 cup of good beef stock to enhance flavor.
- Cook the sauce over low heat for at least 3 hours, stirring every 30 to 45 minutes, with the possibility of extending cooking time to 7-8 hours for more depth.
- After 3 hours, remove the lid and continue to braze for another hour to concentrate flavor, aiming for a syrup-like consistency.
- Remove unwanted fat and beef shank bones, ensuring to scrape out all marrow for richer taste.
- Taste and adjust seasoning twice to ensure optimal flavor balance.
- Cook pasta to 75% of recommended time (e.g., 5-6 minutes if package suggests 8-9 minutes).
- Combine pasta with sauce and pasta water, reserving excess sauce for future meals as it freezes well.
- Enhance final dish with fresh basil leaves and Parmigiano Reggiano, cooking briefly over low heat.
- Finishing pasta in the sauce enhances flavor integration, resulting in a more delicious dish.
- Serve with additional Parmigiano for presentation and flavor, promising a comforting and flavorful meal.
6. 🎥 Final Thoughts and Outro
- The segment concludes with an emphasis on engaging content, specifically mentioning a great recipe video as a highlight.
- The use of music and expressions like 'oh my God yes' suggests a positive emotional engagement, which can be a strategy to retain viewer interest.
- A quick recap of the video includes key takeaways such as focusing on quality content and maintaining viewer engagement through strategic emotional cues.
- The outro transitions smoothly by summarizing the importance of these strategies in content creation.