Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book (49 page)

Serve the dal topped with raita and eat with the warm flatbreads.

I love to use gigante beans (also called butter beans) to give a fun twist to the old standby minestra, an Italian escarole and cannellini bean soup. If you cannot find butter beans in your market, by all means go traditional and use cannellini.

Heat the EVOO in a high-sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook until it starts to crisp, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute. Wilt in the escarole a handful at a time, and when it is all added, season with the nutmeg. Fold the beans into the escarole and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Stir in the lemon zest and remove from the heat. Serve in a large shallow bowl with the bread for mopping and the cheese for topping.

This is pure comfort food. The garlic lentils are a fabulous first course for entertaining and with braised sausage of any kind they make a flavorful, hearty meal.

Place the lentils in a sauce pot with water to cover by 2 inches. Add the bay leaf and onion halves and bring to a boil. Boil the lentils for 20 to 22 minutes, until just tender but with a little bite left to them. Discard the bay leaf.

Once the lentils are cooking, combine the garlic and about 3 tablespoons of the EVOO in a shallow pasta bowl and let stand.

Place the sausages in a small pan and add ¼ inch water and 1 teaspoon EVOO, a little drizzle. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-high. Let the water simmer away for 8 minutes or so, then cook for 3 to 4 minutes more to crisp the casings.

Dress the greens in the balsamic (just eyeball the amount), the remaining 2 teaspoons of EVOO, and salt and pepper.

Drain the lentils and add to the garlic oil along with the parsley. Toss to combine and serve with the sausages on top and the arugula alongside or on top for mixing in.

Because my daytime show is an hour long I have gotten to expand my horizons a bit from my original 30-minute formula so for a couple of years now I've also been creating 60-minute meals. These recipes are no harder to make than 30-minute meals, they just take their time cooking.

I usually cook these recipes when I can take a day off or work from home—times when I can mellow out. In addition to my latest 60-minute meals I've included a few favorite dishes that take even longer but are worth the investment—even for me, the most impatient cook in the kitchen. The Braised Short Ribs with Roasted Beets and Polenta is probably the most complex recipe in this book, but I daydream about the results. I garnish the dish with bitter-sweet ruby pomegranate seeds; they are optional, but do try to find them even if you have to look at two stores. The jewellike tah-da they add is really something.

Elsa's Beef and Burgundy

I've devoted a whole chapter of this book to recipes from my mom as well as my mother-in-law—their recipes, exactly the way they make them. This one is
my
best attempt (my fifth, actually) to get Mom's beef 'n' burgundy right—and I think I've finally done it.

SERVES 6

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the EVOO in a Dutch oven or oven-safe, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate.

While the bacon browns, season the chopped sirloin with salt and pepper. Working in 2 batches, brown the meat in the hot bacon fat, stirring occasionally, until deep golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer the browned meat to a plate as each batch is browned, adding more EVOO as needed.

Add the wine to the pot and deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Bring the wine to a bubble and cook for a couple of minutes to reduce it, then add the beef stock. Return the meat and bacon to the pot, cover the pot, and transfer it to the oven. Bake for 90 minutes.

When the meat has cooked for 60 minutes, place the onions, sugar, and a splash of water in a small sauté pan. Cook over medium-high heat until the water has evaporated and the onions are tender and heated through, 4 to 5 minutes. Reserve and keep warm.

While the onions are cooking, heat a medium skillet with 1 tablespoon of the butter and the remaining tablespoon of EVOO, over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender and golden brown, about 10 minutes, then season with salt and pepper. Reserve and keep warm.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the noodles. Add some salt and the noodles and cook to al dente. Drain the noodles and return them to the pot. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter and the minced chives; toss to combine.

After 90 minutes, remove the beef from the oven and place the pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and mushrooms to the pot and bring the stew up to a bubble. Place the pan the mushrooms were cooked in over medium-high heat and melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and cook the mixture for about 1 minute. Ladle about 1 cup of the liquid from the Dutch oven into the skillet with the roux and whisk to combine. Cook for a minute or two to thicken, then stir the sauce back into the stew. Simmer the stew until thickened, 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in the orange zest. Serve the stew over the buttered noodles.

Sugo is a thick meat sauce similar in consistency to Bolognese but made from pork rather than beef. The pork is hand-cut so the sauce is pretty labor-intensive and I only have the patience to make it a couple of times a year, but as far as I am concerned, it is the tastiest meat sauce you can belly up to. I serve it with either pasta or polenta; both options please me, so the decision comes down to the preferences of those I'm cooking for.

SERVES 4 BIG BOYS OR 6 NORMAL PEOPLE