Ragu for me and you

Deep down their is a yearning in my soul for an old school Italian grandmother. This is not to say that my real grandmothers, proud Scottish women they were, were not good cooks; but lets be honest that deep seated stereotype of an Italian grandmother always cooking something delicious lingers in my thoughts like sand in your flip flops after a day at the beach. Well today I attempted to compensate for the lack of Italian grandmother in my life by making some old school Ragu sauce.

Forget the jar of Ragu you see at the supermarket, cause that ketchupey mess have no place in this old school cucina. I started this adventure knowing I wanted some tough pieces of meat with plenty of bone to flavor my sauce. While everyone may have a different interpretation of what Ragu is, I think of a meaty blend of pork, beef, possibly chicken or sausage, and of course lots of fresh tomatoes.

For the meat I decided to go a little easier on myself and shorten the potential cooking time and hassle by picking up some pork short ribs and chicken drumsticks. I skipped the sausage this time because I would have had to make an extra trip and it was hotter than dammit out so I went straight home to start this four hour process of deliciousness.

Chris's Italian (Faux) Grandmother's Ragu

2lbs of pork short ribs
2lbs of chicken drumsticks
4lbs of tomatoes (I used about 8 fresh tomatoes but if you want more or less sauce do it to taste)
1 yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 carrots
2 celery stems
handfuls of basil, rosemary, oregano or whatever Mediterranean herbs you have on hand
salt and pepper to taste

Begin by knocking out the sauce part, dice up the onion, garlic, carrot, and celery then add to your sauce pan with a generous lug of olive oil. Salt and pepper and allow to sweat out their juices. Dice up the tomato  and herbs, add to onion mixture when the veggies look partially done. Allow the tomatoes and herbs to meld together and leave on low heat to allow everything to soak up each others flavor. After a while either in batches in the blender or with a hand beater, blend up the veggies into a smooth sauce and set aside on low heat.
In the meantime heat up the pan your going to be finishing your dish in, preferably a dutch oven or large pot. Add a dash of olive oil then add meat in batches to sear on both sides. Do not over cook the meat here the goal is just to flavor the pan and lock in the juices. Once all the meat has been cooked off and removed from the pan choose a deglazing medium. The best option to deglaze with is red wine but if none is on hand extra chicken stock or even just water will work. Scrape up the bits of meat from the pan with the deglazing liquid and allow it to simmer down. Once the liquid is reduced by half add the tomato sauce and mix in together. Add the meat back in and cover the pan on a low heat.
Now all that's left is to left it cook for about 2-3 hours and let the meat dissolve into the sauce. When the time approaches boil up some pasta and try to pick out any bones in the sauce. Mix together and enjoy a not so traditional but still Italian experience!