Rigatoni Della Nonna
Later this week, we will be in vacanza in Italy, and non vedo d’ora! (I can’t wait!) We will be traveling with my parents to visit our relatives in northern Italy (my grandmother’s cousins) as well as heading to some parts of Italy that none of us have been to before. Of course, our journey will be shared here in posts to come so stay tuned!
Besides packing, I spent the weekend preparing a feast for a going away party for a friend of ours. I wanted to send him off with a dinner that had some local touches (using local organic beef from my uncle), but also something special that I didn’t think any of our guests have tried, so I chose to make my grandmother’s “rigatoni” recipe.
My nonna (Italian for grandmother) will be 100 years old this August, which is hard to believe, and she still cooks for herself, although my uncle is pitching in more on dishes like this. My grandmother is from northeast Italy, from a small village called Brez that is about halfway between Verona and the Austrian border. The origin of this dish? it is not certain. We have never seen this dish served when we have visited Italy. My great grandmother immigrated in the early 1900’s with other Italians, and it is possible it came from other Italians they knew….or, it is entirely possible it evolved from recipes brought by other immigrants from other parts of Europe, since recipe swapping among neighbors was common. In any case, it was always a family favorite and served at many a birthday and family get-together when I was growing up. I have modernized the recipe a bit and tried to put more firm measurements on the spices, as opposed to the “few shakes of this” notations on the original recipe card.
Rigatoni della Nonna
My nonna’s recipe calls for tomato sauce and tomato juice, yielding a very thin sauce. I prefer thicker, but you can add tomato juice to thin the sauce if you like.
- extra virgin olive oil
- 2 lb beef brisket, roast, or sirloin
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible
- 36 ounces (4 cups) canned tomato puree or tomato sauce (diced tomatoes can also work – if you don’t want the sauce to be chunky, just blend the sauce with an immersion blender before serving)
- 1 lb rigatoni pasta
- Grated parmigiano cheese, for serving
Instructions:
- 24-48 hours prior to cooking, liberally salt all surfaces of the beef, which will help flavor and tenderize the meat.
- In a sauté pan with a tablespoon of olive oil (nonna prefers a tablespoon of butter), brown the beef on all sides over medium high heat. Transfer to slow cooker/crock pot.
- Add the onions to skillet. Cook over medium until softened, 8-10 minutes. Add garlic and stir in. If you feel like it, deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine – this is optional, but gives the sauce a bit more depth. Cook for about 2 minutes to allow some of the liquid to boil off.
- Add veggies to crock pot along with tomatoes and spices, to fully cover the beef.
- Cool on low 5-6 hours until meat is tender, which gives you plenty of time to pack for your next trip! When you approach the end of cooking time, skim off any fat from the top, then taste the sauce and add salt as needed. If the spices seem too strong, you can add more tomatoes.
- At about 15 minutes before dinner, it’s time to mette sul aqua, or bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the rigatoni until al dente (usually 1-2 minutes less than the package instructions). Drain, return to pot, drizzle with a splash of olive oil to keep it from sticking,.and mix with a few ladles of the tomato sauce to coat the pasta.
- Once the beef is tender, you can remove it and serve in one of two ways:
- Slice the beef and serve it on a platter to pass around the table. The pasta is served in pasta bowls, topped with the tomato sauce and cheese. The traditional Italian way would serve the pasta as a primi (first) course, and the beef as a second course with a vegetable side, but it is ok to serve everything all at once, Americano style.
- My version: shred the beef or slice into small pieces, and mix back into the pasta sauce. Serve this meat ragu over the pasta, and top with cheese.
- Buon appetito!
