Frersh Garganelli with Tangy Lamb Ragu

This is such a flavorful, hearty pasta - perfect for cold weather. Your house will smell amazing. I love using balsamic vinegar in braising. It adds such a nice flavor. I made the garganelli, but you can use rigatoni too. 

Ingredients:

1 lamb shank

1/2 cup flour

1 tbsp olive oil 

1 large onion, diced

1 small leek, thinly sliced

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped 

1 celery stock, finely chopped

2 large cloves garlic, minced

Fresh Garganelli

Sundays are great for making pasta. I was cooking a lamb ragu and thought garganelli would be fun and good for the hearty sauce. It's a lot like ziti and has a great texture. You need a gnocchi board or ridged surface for rolling them. 

Makes enough for 4-6 people

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 eggs

4 egg yolks

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp olive oil 

Water

Homemade Garganelli with Fresh Garden Tomato Sauce

So another fabulous shower gift (that probably only I would register for) was a gnocchi board. (Thanks, Alice!) While I'm super excited to make gnocchi, I wanted to try garganelli. It's a time consuming, penne style pasta that really appealed to me. I was waiting for Jamie to come home Sunday afternoon, so I thought I would take advantage of my fresh tomatoes and time to spare and try it. Yum! Any fresh pasta is great, but these are really pretty noodles. Certainly a treat. In contrast, the tomato sauce is one of the easiest sauces - feel free to make it with any other regular old pasta. This is also not a traditional garganelli sauce, but it's summer, it's what I had, and it's delicious.

Fresh Garden Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
1 small bowls worth of super ripe, fresh tomatoes
1/4 cup good olive oil
1-2 tsp salt
2 cloves of garlic, minced