The Roe Meat Sauce a Delicate and Tasty Meat

The venison ragout, delicate and tasty meat. By choosing to eat precious and wild meat, you are certainly looking for strong flavours. With roe deer, this expectation is certainly not disappointed, but the flavour of this meat is particularly delicate. The characteristic perfume and the lively red of the roe deer meat find their maximum expression in this roe deer ragù, perfect for a Sunday lunch or for special occasions.

We are faced with a demanding dish with long preparation times, but still rather simple overall. The success of the dish will mostly depend on the quality and freshness of the meat, the real decisive mark of the meat sauce. With a sauce of this invoice, a good mood at the table will be assured, just as the final shoe with a nice slice of toasted bread will be considered!

Thanks to the large retail chains, it is possible to find deer meat anywhere in Italy. Certainly, some regions more than others include more game in their eating habits. Just in these regions (especially in Umbria and Tuscany) finding roe deer meat is simpler, together with those of hares and wild boars.

Game meat, to be more tenderized and made more pleasant to taste, requires several hours of marinating. The wait necessary for the preparation is in any case fully repaid by the flavour given off by the roe deer ragù. A delight to try at least once in a lifetime, but certainly even more than once! With a first of this type, you will all conquer.

In the presence of an important ragù, all you can do is recommend pairing with a pasta that is up to the situation. In particular, egg pappardelle would seem right for us with this delicious roe deer ragù! Certainly egg pasta is not exactly a proposal suitable for all diets and can certainly be replaced by equally good alternatives. However, what is necessary for a ragù of this type is still a wrinkled pasta capable of retaining the sauce with the meat in the best way, so as to enhance its rich flavour.

The pappardelle with roe deer ragu, in particular, is to be defined as a classic and perfect match. Not least, rice noodles or even wholemeal noodles can be appreciated. The options that can be evaluated are certainly multiple. In the presence of a ragù like this, everything really goes into the background and even the pasta itself could be put aside. A particularly tasty idea could be to propose the venison ragout as an appetizer perhaps presented with delicious croutons.

Ingredients for about 6/8 people:

For the ragù:

• 500 g of roe deer meat
• 700 g of tomato sauce
• 60 g of clarified butter
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 onion
• 1 celery stalk
• 50 ml of full-bodied red wine
• Salt to taste.

For the marinade:

• 8 juniper berries
• 1 litre of full-bodied red wine
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 4 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sage leaves
• 1/2 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• Black peppercorns to taste.

First of all, you need to marinate the meat, in this regard it takes 8 to 20 hours. For this reason, it is necessary to start preparing the marinade at least the day before the day designed for tasting the venison ragout.

First, carefully wash the venison meat under running water at room temperature. Place the meat thus treated in a rather large bowl together with bay leaf, sage, rosemary, garlic, black peppercorns, onion, juniper and cloves. Pour a litre of full-bodied red wine over the meat and spices, ensuring that the roe deer remains completely drowned under the marinade. Repair the contents of the bowl with plastic wrap and leave everything to marinate in the fridge for at least 8/9 hours (maximum 20).

After the marinating hours, the pieces of venison are drained and ground in a meat grinder. In the absence of a meat grinder, you can grind the knife-point deer. Once the meat is minced, chop carrot, celery and onion, reducing everything into rather small pieces. In a tall saucepan, with a little clarified butter, brown the vegetables.
When the vegetables begin to show dried, add the minced meat. Cook the roe deer meat with the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until it has changed colour in relation to the cooking.

When the roe is uniformly brownish/greyish, pour the red wine and let it evaporate. Once all the alcohol has evaporated, pour the tomato and continue cooking over low heat, covering the pan. Cooking should be slow and gentle for at least 4 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent the meat from sticking to the bottom. If during cooking the sauce tends to dry out excessively, add a few ladles of hot water. After the cooking hours, this excellent ragù will be ready to be served, perhaps accompanied by pappardelle or your favourite pasta!

Always check that the ingredients you use for the preparation of your recipes are suitable for coeliacs and people sensitive to gluten. Check the barred ear, the presence on the Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS) or the indications on the manufacturer's label.

From the ministerial note: The word "delactosate" has been eliminated, as previously associated with the word "dietetic". The term lactose-free may be used instead for dairy products and for milk with a lactose content of less than 0.1 g per 100 g or ml