We're going to make a brisket ragu for rigatoni.
For the brisket, I buy a, uh, three or four pound,
as big as I can fit into my largest dutch oven,
and I ask my butcher to trim it
nice and clean and lean for me.
I brown it with salt and pepper.
The recipe starts by taking couple of really large onions,
three or four, like good softball-sized onions.
I add thyme and bay to the onions,
and let them cook low and slow until they're sugary sweet
and caramel in color.
I'm gonna turn the meat off.
When you're browning it, don't forget the sides.
Brown all of the brisket,
and then we're going to add some Worcestershire,
either a bouillon cube
or a single-used container of demi glace.
I keep these in the fridge at all times.
They come in little single-serve, one spoonfuls.
You could get them right online,
and I just keep them on hand.
I put a little white pepper, not black pepper,
into the onions and the thyme and the bay.
I add one quart of stock to the beef.
Then, right up on top of the beef,
I add all the caramelized onion, put a lid on it,
cook it low and slow in the oven.
Uh, 300, you get away 325,
and it will take about three to four hours
depending on the thickness of your brisket.
Do not pull it out until it's fork tender,
and when you wiggle it with a fork,
it feels like it's very giving.
This is brisket the first night, right?
Just sliced brisket with the caramelized onions
and some of those beautiful drippings
right down through the middle
with some simple carrots, parsnips,
whatever vegetables you like on the side.
The leftover, we take a couple of forks,
and shred that brisket.
See how it just pulls apart like that?
And shred it up 'cause this is going to be the base
of our ragu, okay?
For the ragu, wanna slide my pot over.
Get your dutch oven nice and hot with olive oil.
Add carrots, celery, onion, your usual suspects.
Let that sweat out.
And we're gonna throw in a good full handful of rosemary,
salt and pepper.
(vegetables sizzling)
And once that sweats a little,
add four fat cloves of garlic, which I'm gonna thinly slice.
These are the cold mushrooms.
All I did was add porcini, dried mushrooms to stock.
You take them out, you chop them, that's this, okay?
To the pot, I just added juniper berries.
That's optional, but they're delicious.
You put all of that brisket down in the pot,
and crisp it up.
Get it nice and crispy at the edges.
All those snibbly bits.
Some Italian red wine.
Mmm.
Then, we add in all of our porcini
and our porcini-flavored stock.
Yes, baby.
Undercook the pasta by one minute.
Always cook the pasta in copious amounts of salted water.
Big pot, lots of salt.
That's your chance to season the pasta itself.
When you drain it,
reserve a mug full of the salty, starchy water.
Drain it, put it immediately back into the pot
so the excess liquid can marry the sauce and the pasta.
My family, we always put butter and cheese,
which I've already done here.
Butter and cheese with the starchy water.
Emulsify that, stir it all together.
That's why we undercook it, okay?
So this already has butter,
cheese that's melted into that brisket ragu
with the porcinis, and the carrot, celery, onion and garlic.
That looks nice and saucy and juicy.
I think I went cheap on the cheese.
Want to throw in a little more of that in there.
(audience exclaims)
And stir that together.
(audience applauds)
We're not done.
(audience applauds)
Then, you put the rigatoni in a big, beautiful bowl.
And top it with more of the shaved brisket
and that beautiful sauce.
Aah.
(audience applauds and cheers)