Rigatoni In a Prosciutto Meat Sauce

Rigatoni In a Prosciutto Meat Sauce

I think you can tell by now that I like pasta ... a lot. Last night I cooked up a batch of rigatoni for my little group and we wolfed that down with a couple bottles of wine. 

How many different ways are there to serve pasta? I don’t think it is possible to answer that. Thinking back to the years when I had big dinners every Wednesday, I'd guess the number of different pasta variations I served approached the one thousand mark. Some were similar, but the ingredient list was always a little different. I would work with whatever ingredients I had and would usually end up with different combinations.

This particular pasta came about when I saw prosciutto ends in the deli section of a small grocery. I bought one for a fairly good price and made this pasta that night. 

1 lb. coarse ground beef

1 cup prosciutto finely chopped 

1 large onion chopped

6 cloves garlic smashed and minced

2 cups red wine

2 tsp. basil
1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes 

1/2 tsp. salt

2 28 oz. cans of San Marzano tomatoes

Tabasco

Fresh basil leaves
1 lb. rigatoni cooked al dente

Preparation

Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and stir for about 5 minutes. Add the ground beef, garlic and prosciutto and cook, stirring often, until the beef looses itʼs pink color.

Add the wine, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and salt. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for about ten minutes. Add the cans of tomatoes and break them up with a knife and fork. Stir and let it simmer, uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring often. Taste the sauce for seasoning, add a bunch of Tabasco. If you have any fresh basil, tear up a handful of basil leaves and stir it into the sauce. Turn off the heat.

Serving

To serve this, place a big pile of rigatoni on a plate and pour the sauce over the rigatoni and then bombard it with lots of fresh grated parmesan. Now add good crisp salad with lots of tomatoes and green onions. 

A fresh baked crusty bread with olive oil for dipping is also good. Next I would add some green beans sautéed in olive oil with red pepper flakes. Then I would open a bottle of Montepulciano dʼAbruzzo from Italy. I would also probably go back for seconds ... but thatʼs just me.