There is something very satisfying about planning a meal and then taking the time to attentively and purposefully follow the process of preparing the meal. Making ragú is a time consuming process. It requires planning and getting ingredients. Reading blogs for recipes. Marinating the meat over night. Attending to the ragú simmering on the stove for much of the day. Making the pasta to go with the ragú. All of these components, in the right frame of mind, can be restoring. Not to mention the aromas in the kitchen when you walk in from a nice walk outside and the pleasure of sitting down to a meal with people whose company you enjoy.

So, why is this entry titled “Oh, Deer?”

I think it is important to know where our food comes from. Milk doesn’t come from a box or jug. It comes from a cow. Vegetables grow in the ground and not out of plastic packaging on a grocery store shelf. And if they are organic, they may even be fertilized with manure of some kind. Chicken, pork, beef, veal, lamb — all started out as living and breathing animals. In the modern US, we are very distant from this reality.

One of the tenets of eating in environmentally sustainable ways is that you eat local when possible and support small family farms. Shopping at the local farmer’s market is one way to do this. Reading labels at the grocery for produce grown in state is another. Hunting and fishing are two other important ways to eat really local that may not be so common.

My brother is an outdoorsy kind of guy. He would be happy to spend the rest of his days fishing, hunting, camping, and hiking. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, he managed to shoot a doe. And so Christmas dinner was decided. Venison would be the main course. (And it was really delicious with a gratin of potatoes and roasted Brussel sprouts. His smoked trout from the summer was defrosted and served with a creme fraiche, dill and horseradish sauce as an appetizer.)

But when you shoot a deer, you get the whole animal, not just a steak from the butcher counter. So there is a lot more venison in the freezer waiting to be appreciated. In addition to the jerky that my brother made and the Christmas roast, we also decided to make sausage. Christmas morning we set up shop in the kitchen and figured out how to make venison breakfast sausage. We decided to try to season it a couple of different ways. We riffed on the venison sausage from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. In addition to bay leaves and garlic, we also added some orange zest and fennel. We also made another version from The Hunting Mom which was more like a classic breakfast sausage with sage. Both were delicious dipped in maple syrup.

But there is more venison still! I decided that I would try to make a venison ragú Bolognese. I searched for recipes and found mostly recipes for ragú made with wild boar. They all start with a sofrito of equal parts carrot, celery and onion that is sautéed in some sort of fat — olive oil, butter, or pancetta. The meat is browned either with the sofrito or in a separate pan, liquid is added and it is cooked down for an hour before adding some tomatoes and then cooked for another hour or so . Once the fat separates from the sauce and the meat is falling apart tender, the sauce is served with papardelle or taglietelle and freshly grated parmiagiano cheese.

The recipe I ended up following has the Wild Boar Ragú recipe from the NY Times with some other influences from Kenji Lopez-Alt’s recipe for ragu from Serious Eats.

Venison Ragú Bolognese

Cut about 1 pound of venison into small cubes. I used sirloin. Recipes indicate that shoulder roasts are also good. Marinate overnight with 4 sliced cloves of garlic, a spring of fresh rosemary, and red wine to cover.

The next day, finely dice 2 ribs of celery, 2 carrots and half an onion. Sautée with pancetta in a dutch oven until soft.

Strain the venison reserving the red wine. Discard the rosemary.

Add the venison to the sofrito and brown. Continue cooking until all the liquid the meat has rendered has cooked off. Add the reserved wine from the marinade. Continue cooking until the wine is reduced to almost nothing. Then add half a can of San Marzano tomatoes, crushed, and juice to the pan. Add about 1 cup of water. Simmer partially covered for an hour or so.

Add 2 cups of meat or vegetable stock to the pan. Continue to cook for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours.

In the meantime, make the pasta or use fresh pasta. Taglietelle is traditional for Bolognese sauce.

When you are about ready for dinner, cook the pasta in well-salted water. Before draining, reserve about a cup of pasta water. Add the pasta, some of the pasta water, and the sauce to the pasta pot. Cook for a minute or so, stirring the pasta into the sauce. The addition of the water makes the sauce silky and cooking the pasta in the reserved water and the sauce allows the flavor of the sauce to coat and permeate the pasta. Plate the pasta and garnish it with fresh chopped parsley and Parmagiano cheese.