Slow cooked beef ragu with pappardelle for a lazy Sunday...

I am not sure whether yesterday I was tired because Juanan woke up five times during the night or because I had a date night with Nick, drunk a Cosmopolitan cocktail on a empty stomach and the alcohol went straight to my head (and I almost went straight to the floor!).

I think it is hangover and not the lack of sleep (I tend to blame the poor baby all the time when I am tired!). The first hangover I have in four years since December of 2010, a month after we went back home, Australia I mean, from our posting in Buenos Aires. In Argentina, we spent three wonderful years and our first child, our daughter Aurelia, was born there.

My sister in-law, Holly, and Nick's brother, Joe, organised a beautiful outdoor dinner for all the McCaffrey siblings in their trendy house of Carlton (which actually belongs to Nick's parents but they were renting it at that time) a couple of days before Christmas Day. 

The setting for the dinner was adorable thanks to the long wooden table and the small details and efforts Hol and Joe put into it to create a welcoming atmosphere. There were pretty fresh flowers, small candles and white cotton napkins, individually folded, on top of each dinner plate. 

They made crusty pizzas, plenty for all of us, although we fought for the last piece of each one. As it was the beginning of summer and the breeze was a bit cool we drunk a few bottles of red wine from Hol's uncle's vineyard to keep us warm. I always suffer of cold- as my father said I was like an olive in a tooth-stick- so I drunk too much.I had the best night ever but also suffered a terrible hangover the next morning, that's why I remember it very clear.

Since I came back from Spain this 9th of January I haven't had time to chat properly with my friends or even Nick. When I wake up he is already at the embassy and in the last few evenings we are too busy with the children and too tired to be unable to make sentences with actually sense . It is everyday's life at the moment.

However, we both were looking forward to having a nice dinner out so we booked in one of our favourite restaurants in Manila, Massetto. I took Nick there for his birthday when we just arrived in Manila and the week before Gabriel was born two years ago or so. The restaurant has a cozy and romantic ambience where the food is divine (although some people had not so good experience) and the light and music perfectly adjusted.

After having the pre-dinner drink in the bar we moved to the table. The Cosmopolitan was already floating in my head so I ordered my main very quickly without looking through the menu in detail. I was starving and getting tipsy. Nick, of course, totally in control.

I am glad he ordered some fried calamares with alioli to start with. Each bite of the crunchy calmer helped the cocktail to slowly touch base in my head and my words, my stories about the trip to Spain, my worries about what is going to happen in the next few months before our final departure from Philippines, our holidays in Port Douglas, what to do with the children while we are in Canberra…one thing after the other, the conversation kept going with more wine and more food.

Nick chose pork belly with lentils and I had for a main course pan fried fresh cod over a bed of white bean puree. Absolutely mouth-watering.

We were enjoying the date night so much that we forgot for a couple of hours we had three little children at home being looked after by our lovely yay a Jennifer who by almost the end of the meal sent me a text of a hungry baby Juanan.

It is fascinating to observe how good food and great conversation make a night out hard to forget…so hard that I thought of that dinner all day on Sunday when I struggled to do things with the children instead of laying down on the sofa and drinking water to heal my hangover. Que me quiten lo bailao.

Made fresh pasta following the recipe of the post of Spinach and ricotta ravioli under the pasta label. When you have the lasagna sheets done, just cut them in stripes of different sizes, one wider than others, it is ok. 

A traditional Italian ragu sauce will take you a good twenty hours of cooking and you will need more than 25 ingredients to prepare it. You can substitute the beef cubes for minced beef or pork.

For the ragu, make sure the beef is at room temperature. I used 2 thick slices cut in cubes of US blade beef. Add some salt and leave it outside for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, using medium heat, fry 100g of pancetta with the white part removed, until crispy and brown. Set it aside. In the same pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and when hot, cook 1 chopped carrot, celery and onion until soft and golden, add 2 garlic crushed and cook for 2 minutes. Set all the ingredients aside on a bowl.

Always using the same pot with the juices, add more olive oil and start frying the dusted beef cubes, three at the time, to brown the meat. Don't crowd the pan and wait until the meat is really brown (it is called Maillard reaction,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction if you are curious about it). Set it aside on a plate.

When you finish with the meat, add all the ingredients, including the meat, to the pot. Pour 2 cups of dry red wine and increase the heat so the alcohol evaporates. Add 1 cup of tomato sauce if you have some already made or a can of diced tomatoes, and 1 cup of beef stock.

Season with salt and fresh pepper and made a bouquet garni with a bundle of any fresh herbs you might have in the fridge. I used thyme and parsley and laurel. Add it to the pot.

Cover and simmer to low heat for 2 hours, checking from time to time.

Serve this ragu with pappardelle  and a nice glass of water…

Buen provecho!

PS: Nick found the dish too rich but I loved it, perhaps because I was craving something hearty for my hangover…