Pappardelle pasta is harder to find than you’d think. I’ve been wanting to make this dish for a while and finally got around to it last week. I searched several nearby grocery stores for Pappardelle pasta with no luck. That’s when amazon, once again, came to the rescue. If you’re not particular about using Pappardelle for this dish, a more conventional pasta such as Fettuccine will work as well. Jerry and I really like the taste of truffle so I used truffle oil instead of extra virgin olive oil in this dish. Most meat sauces such as this one will combine 1 lb. ground veal and 1 lb. ground pork. I’m not a fan of pork, so I used ground veal alone. One last note about this recipe; my tomato sauce has carrot in it so I only grated 1 small carrot into the meat sauce. A sauce that doesn’t have carrot can use more grated carrots.

Ingredients:

1 Large Onion, diced

2 Tbsp Thyme

1 Carrot, finely grated (~2-3 if you don’t use my tomato sauce recipe)

2 Lbs. Ground Veal

4-6 Cups My Tomato Sauce

~5 Garlic Cloves, minced

Salt & Pepper to Taste

Handful Fresh Basil Leaves, finely chopped

Shaved Parmesan

Truffle Oil, optional (otherwise olive oil)

1 Lb. Papperdelle Pasta

Directions:

1. In a deep skillet, saute the onion in truffle oil (or olive oil) until it just begins turning translucent. Add in the thyme and grated carrot and continue to saute until the grated carrot softens, about 3 minutes.

2. The meat can be a bit much for the pan so I added 1 lb. at a time, separating and breaking it apart before adding the second pound. Don’t leave the stove until the meat is well separated in the skillet. This will become easier as the meat releases its fat. Turn the range to low and allow the meat to stew for about 10 minutes. Season the meat with salt to taste.

3. Depending on how thick you want your meat sauce will determine how much tomato sauce you use. Keep in mind that a lot of the water will evaporate as the sauce simmers so be generous. I started with 2 cups of tomato sauce and as the sauce simmered for about an hour I continued to add 4 more cups of tomato sauce.  Simmer your sauce for a total of 45-60 minutes. In the last 10 minutes add the minced garlic.