4/14/11

Creamy, Double Meat Rigatoni


As I've said before, I like to experiment with food. I've also said that I win some and I loose some. I think that the more you experiment, the more you get a feel for what will go together and what won't. It just takes time, patience and a loving family. :-)

So here is a new one and I will post the ingredient list at the end. I had some lean, natural beef along with some of our pork in the freezer waiting to be used. Grabbed them both and straight from the deep freeze and plunked them into the pan on med-low with a lid. The lid not only helps keep the heat in, it keeps the moistness in the meat and from scorching as well. I check on it every 3-5 minutes and "scrape" off the cooked portions and flip the meat over. When about 3/4 of the meat is cooked, give it a teaspoon or so of some good seasoning salt. Time to start a pot of water for the Rigatoni.

Meat Tip #1: If you don't do this, you end up with a super large and thick hamburger patty. It actually cooks pretty quickly with this method, so rarely will I take ground meat out to defrost if I'm just going to be cooking ground meat.
 This makes for a lot of meat, which I will only be using about 1/3 of for this recipe. The rest, I'm going to save. Meat Tip #2: Save your meat and have a little less grease the easy way - put a folded paper towel in the bottom of your bowl and it will soak up a lot of the extra grease.


I drain the meat remaining in the pan. If you are very concerned with fat, here is Meat Tip #3: Take a wad of paper towel and wipe the pan with the meat in it and it will absorb more fat still. To the third of the meat I have left in the pan, I add 3/4 of a quart of tomatoes that had been canned with garlic and basil. I don't worry about draining this though. I want all the flavor from those liquids. I also add about 3/4 cup of frozen peas and carrots. If I had just peas, I would have used that, but the carrots did add a simple sweetness. Hopefully your water is now at a boil, so add some salt and your desired amount of noodles. Personally, I use half a box for 4 of us. Set your timer!
This does NOT show the full 3/4 of a quart of tomatoes
Here is the full tomatoes - you can see all the liquid.
Let this simmer on med to med-high. We want to reduce the liquid, while keeping the flavor and nutrients from the water. Don't think you'll miss much? Take a spoonful of the liquids and taste it....you'd miss it. Promise.

You're going to stir this mix every couple minutes - more as it thickens. What you want to get to is about this consistency (mine took about 12 minutes):
Now for the creamy. I used one half package of light cream cheese, break it into smaller pieces and place the chunks around in the sauce.

Let it melt for a minute or two and then stir. Is your mouth watering yet? YUM! Mine is again as I write this down. Noodles should be just about done - drain the noodles when your timer goes off and add your fabulous sauce.

Now it's time for eating. D decided to me my sampler. He's become more adventurous as the experiments have gotten better. That and the promise that if it's bad, he doesn't have to eat it.
Thumbs up from D-man.
Now for the ingredient list.
Creamy, Double Meat Rigatoni

1/3 lb ground beef
1/3 lb ground pork
Rigatoni - good quality
1 tsp. seasoning salt
3/4 c. peas (or peas and carrots)
3/4 qt. stewed tomatoes with garlic and basil (or add those later)
4 oz (1/2 package) cream cheese

Try it, you'll like it. Let me know what you think.

No comments:

Post a Comment