Christmas Pasta Rachael Ray Recipes

CHRISTMAS PASTA

Steps:

• Heat a deep pot over medium-high heat. Add pancetta and brown to render the fat. Transfer pancetta to paper towels to drain. To the pan add the oil, and the meats and brown and crumble them for 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, and pancetta bits.
• Chop carrot, celery, and onions near the stove and add to the pot as you work. Cook vegetables with meat 5 minutes and add wine. Cook for 1 minute; add stock and tomatoes to the pot.
• Stir in parsley, allspice, or cinnamon and season sauce with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring sauce to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and cook 10 to 15 minutes, minimum, before serving. Reheated sauce only improves.
• Toss pasta (cook off only as much pasta as you need at the time: half a pound for every 3 people) with a couple of ladles of sauce to coat, then top bowl with extra sauce. Top pasta with lots of cheese and pass bread at the table.

CHRISTMAS PASTA - RACHAEL RAY

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add salt.
• Add in the rigatoni; cook to al dente per package directions.
• While the water and pasta work, heat a large nonstick skillet over med-high heat.
• Add in 1 tablespoon olive oil; add pancetta to one half of the skillet, the sausage (both hot and sweet) to the other half of the skillet.
• Break up the sausage into bits and brown while the pancetta renders; then combine and cook together another minute or so.
• Remove to a plate with a slotted spoon.
• Add the remaining olive oil to the skillet; then add in the beef and veal.
• Brown and crumble the meat into tiny bits; add in allspice, salt, and pepper.
• Add in the carrots, onions, and garlic; cook 5-6 minutes to soften the vegetables.
• Add the sausage and pancetta back to the skillet, draining away some of the fat.
• Deglaze the pan with the wine, scaping up all the good bits with a wooden spoon.
• Stir in the stock, then stir in the tomatoes.
• Check the seasoning to taste and adjust.
• Simmer over low heat until ready to serve, at least 10 minutes.
• Stir in half the parsley to finish.
• Drain the pasta and add back to the hot pot.
• Ladle a few spoonfuls of pasta over the sauce and add cheese to the pot.
• Stir to coat the pasta evenly; transfer to a large serving dish or individual bowls; top with remaining sauce and parsley; pass plenty of extra cheese at the table.

RACHAEL RAY'S SUNDAY GRAVY AND MACARONI (SPAGHETTI, REALLY)

Steps:

• Heat water for pasta to boil. Salt and cook pasta 7 to 8 minutes, to al dente.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• Sauce: Heat a deep skillet or medium heavy bottomed sauce pot over medium high heat. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Quarter the sausages. Add 1 tablespoon, 1 turn of the pan, extra-virgin olive oil to pan or pot. Place chops in pan or pot and brown 2 minutes on each side, remove. Add another tablespoon oil, 1 turn of the pan, and sausages. Brown sausages 2 minutes on each side and transfer to plate with pork. Add pepper flakes, chopped garlic and onion to the pot and sauté 1 minute - be very careful as the pepper flakes will burn pretty quickly.
• Add broth to the pan and scrape up drippings. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, water, sugar and herbs and bring sauce to a bubble. Add meats back to the pot and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer sauce until ready to serve, 12 to 15 minutes (this is the spot where you could really simmer the sauce for a couple of hours more or less if you wanted to).
• Meatballs: Combine ground meat, egg, remaining 2 cloves chopped garlic, 1/3 cup cheese, and bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper and roll into balls, 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. Place balls on nonstick cookie sheet. Roast meatballs 10 minutes, then slide into Sunday sauce and turn off oven.
• To serve, place pork, sausages and meatballs on serving dish. Pour 1/2 of the sauce into a serving dish to ladle over pasta and meats at the table. Toss cooked spaghetti with remaining sauce in sauce pot, adding a few handfuls of grated cheese to the pot as you toss it. Transfer pasta to a serving dish.