The pasta course of a recent dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant in Amsterdam, Bussia, was spaghettini (angel hair spaghetti) with a spicy ragù of venison and crunchy red bell pepper. I really liked the combination of flavors, and it inspired me to create this pasta dish as well as a venison stew about which I will post soon. It is not a classic Italian dish (at least not that I have ever heard of), but it is in Italian style. The use of paprika gives it a touch of Hungary as well.
I started the ragù with cubed meat rather than ground meat since I was making the stew and the ragù at the same time. If you are only making the ragù, you could also grind the meat before browning it. You could then omit the flour and season the meat with salt and paprika after browning it. If using ground meat, do not cover the pan while simmering to avoid ending up with a ragù that is too thin.
Ingredients
For 6 servings
500 grams (1.1 lbs) spaghettini
900 grams (2 lbs) venison stewing meat, in cubes
2 red bell peppers
about 250 ml (1 cup) warm water or venison stock
1 Tbsp hot paprika (or 2 tsp sweet paprika and 1 tsp chilli powder)
80 ml (1/3 cup) red wine
1 Tbsp flour, preferably semola di grano duro
1 Tbsp double-concentrated tomato paste (or 2 Tbsp single concentrated)
1 stick celery
1 onion
1 carrot
1 bay leaf
6 juniper berries
1 clove garlic
some thyme sprigs
olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp chopped fresh flatleaf parsley
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano (optional)
Preparation
Combine paprika, flour and 1 tsp salt in a small bowl.
Stir until homogeneous.
Combine the meat and the paprika mix and stir to coat the meat evenly.
Heat about 2 Tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and add the meat.
Brown the meat on all sides and take it out of the pan, set aside, and turn off the heat.
Chop the onion, carrot, and celery very fine. I like to do this with the foodprocessor.
Add the vegetables to the frying pan over medium heat. There will be a nice brown crust from browning the meat. Add a bit of olive oil if needed and sauté the vegetables.
Scrape the brown bits of the bottom to get all the flavor.
Add the tomato paste, stir, and let it sauté for another minute.
Add the red wine.
Stir until about half of the wine has evaporated.
Put the meat and all of the juices that leaked out of it back into the pan.
Add bay leaf, juniper berries, thyme, and just enough warm water to barely cover the meat. You could also use venison stock instead of water if you have it.
Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to a bare simmer.
Partially cover and let this simmer until the meat is tender, about 3 hours.
Check whether the meat is cooked with a fork.
Take the meat out of the sauce with a slotted spoon and set it aside.
Simmer the sauce to thicken it and concentrate the flavors to your liking. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and paprika.
Up to this point the recipes for the ragù and the stew are the same.
To make ragù, put the meat into a food processor.
Grind the meat using the pulse. It should not be pureed.
Clean the bell peppers and cut into very small dice. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over high heat and add the bell pepper.
Sauté for a few minutes over high heat until the bell pepper starts to color and is cooked but still has a bit of crunch.
Add the sauce and the ground meat to the bell pepper and stir to mix.
Add spaghettini (cooked al dente in salted water according to package instructions) and parsley.
Toss to mix.
Serve on warm plates. Freshly grated parmigiano is optional.
Wine pairing
At Bussia the pasta was served with a barbera. Most powerful Italian reds with good acidity will work with this.
I love venison. It’s one of my favorite meats. Unfortunately, it is not readily available in the US unless you’re a hunter. We are beginning to see some markets carrying Elk but it is pricey and only available at specialty markets. As a result, I typically will substitute lamb for recipes calling for venison. The recipe looks and sounds wonderful. I love that it is a dual purpose recipe depending upon your mood and palate for the evening. Nicely done, Stefan.
Thanks Richard. Where I was travelling in the US in September, even lamb was hard to get. As well as veal. It seemed to be just beef and chicken everywhere.
Rural US has doesn’t have the greatest variety and chicken and beef are the proteins of choice over here. Also, people generally don’t really like lamb, goat, veal, duck, etc. For a large number of families, meals consist of meat (typically beef) and potatoes.
I forgot to mention pork, which was also available.
Goat is not very common around here, but I’ve never looked for it so it may be easier than I think.
Lamb, veal, duck, hare, rabbit, guinea fowl, partridge, venison, roe deer venison, goose, wild boar, quail, pigeon, pheasant, etc. are all easily available here (some depending on the hunting season of course).
You and the Baby Lady are welcome for another episode of Food Blogging Without Boundaries if you’d like to come prepare and eat some or all of them
Thanks, Stefan. We would love to visit the Netherlands but it needs to be in the heat of the summer because we’re warm weather people and the winters in the Netherlands would probably be a little too much, especially for my little El Paso girl, the Baby Lady.
Even in summer I can’t guarantee it will be over 70 degrees and it’s unlikely to be 80 or above (unless you are lucky). That’s not the worst problem though, it may also rain. Oh well, it would be about the food and great company
Be nice over polenta too, I bet
Absolutely! I served the stew with mashed potatoes (post coming up), but it would certainly work with polenta as well.
Beautifully interpreted Stefan … I can almost ‘smell’ the gorgeous scent.
Thanks for the nice compliment
I agree with Richard. Venison just isn’t available here. In my youth, we seemed to have it often but, then again, Dad was a hunter and his friends always brought some to us. This is a good recipe, though, Stefan. Red peppers make a great sauce and using lamb in place of the venison, as Richard suggests, is a good substitution.
Thanks for the nice compliment. I also agree on the lamb, which would make it close to a dish from Abruzzo (Agnello coi Peperoni) that I should blog about at some point, too.
I am surprised venison is not even available in Chicago. If the craving hits, you can always come over for another episode of Food Blogging Without Boundaries”
Thank you for sharing, this sounds like a lovely recipe. I have some venison in the freezer at the moment and this seems like a perfect way to use it (I will look forward to seeing the stew recipe too!).
Thanks for the nice comment! The stew recipe will be posted tomorrow, and it is very similar to the ragù recipe.