This is another recipe destined for the Murder, She Cooked book. Naturally, I was tempted to add some paper-thin slices of garlic, created with the aid of a razor blade, as we see Paul Sorvino’s character Paulie do in Goodfellas.
But I resisted! No garlic in Paul’s recipe, so no garlic was added. This was super tasty and I did a bit of a flimflamfloozie on it, cooking it in my slow cooker (crock pot) instead of on the stove. Here’s Paul’s recipe and my notes on a slow cooker version follow.
Paul was obviously no slouch in the kitchen, he did have a food brand at one point. American readers, can you still get this in supermarkets there?
and googling “Paul Sorvino foods” just now led me to this. ANOTHER book to buy!
If I hadn’t used my slow cooker, I could have re-enacted the scene at the end of Goodfellas where my beloved Ray Liotta, playing Henry Hill is getting sweatier and sweatier making spaghetti sauce and getting paranoid about a helicopter…
“See, I was cooking dinner that night. I had to start braising the beef, pork butt, and veal shanks in the tomato sauce. It was Michael’s favorite, I was making ziti with the meat gravy and I was planning to roast some peppers over the flames and I was gonna put on some string beans with some olive oil and garlic and I had some beautiful cutlets that were cut just right that I was gonna fry up for before dinner as an appetizer.”
I’d love to have eaten dinner with Ray Liotta sometime, and I’d love to get hold of some of this too…
The milk and wine in Paul’s sauce lovely and moist, but I took a detour in making it. After adding the milk and cooking it until it was absorbed, I put the meat mixture, tomatoes, and salt into my slow cooker (crock pot). I cooked the sauce on low overnight for 8 hours, then uncovered the pot and switched it to high for an hour. Served the next day with rigatoni, it was a big hit with me and Mr Rathbone. Yum!
I like the idea of doing this in the slow cooker and not just because i just got my utility bills ! I’ve never ever seen or heard of slicing the garlic this way or that thin – I get the point, but I’ve never come across it before or since from an italian source or chef. But hey I guess it’s one way of kiling time in the can.
I will try this although I’ve never put milk into my bolognese as i’m not a big fan of the stuff but I feel I need to just once to see if I will appreciate the extra silkiness everyone talks about.
Do it Mark! You won’t regret it! I feel a big winter of slow cooker action coming on. Luckily I have three of the darlings. A massive one that I can do leg of lamb in, a tiny one for dishes that serve two and a medium one that is the workhhorse….
I did this on the low setting in my slow cooker and when I came to taste test after about four hours it was utterly sublime, but thinking it probably wasn’t quite cooked I let it bubble away for another hour thinking it would be even better by then, sadly not ! Just tasted overdone and a bit greasy with all the extra fat the had come out of the meat . Quite edible of course, but far from the treat I was expecting . Will remember for next time. Your ‘low’ setting on your slow cooker must be a lot cooler than mine.
Mark, my slow cooker is ANCIENT! Perhaps the low settings were lower in the 1970s!! Jx