dry red wine

It would be hard to find a simpler meal than Mr. Claiborne’s hearty beef stew, which goes beautifully with buttered noodles and a stout glass of red wine. (Or, for the children, a glass of milk.) A small scattering of cloves adds a floral note to the gravy, augmented by just a little thyme, and the combination pairs beautifully with the carrots you add near the end of the cooking process, to prevent them from going mushy in the heat. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the finished dish, of course, a nod to the past that rewards in beauty and flavor alike.

Craig Claiborne's Beef Stew

chuck steak

olive oil

Salt and pepper

garlic

onions

flour

water

cloves

bay leaf

thyme

parsley,

carrots,

Using a large skillet, heat the oil and add the beef cubes in one layer. Add salt and pepper and cook, stirring and turning the pieces often, for about 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle with flour and stir to coat the meat evenly.

Add the wine and stir until the mixture boils and thickens. Stir in the water. Add the cloves, bay leaf, thyme and parsley. Cover closely and simmer for one hour.

Meanwhile, cut the carrots into one-inch lengths. If the pieces are very large, cut them in half lengthwise. Add them to the beef. Cover and continue cooking for 30 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Serve the stew sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Meaty mushrooms simmered with pearl onions, wine and carrots make for a rich, wintry Bourguignon-style stew. The quality of the stock here makes a big difference, so if you’re not using homemade, buy a good brand. If you’re a meat eater, beef broth adds a familiar brawny character to this dish, but mushroom or vegetable broth work just well, especially because the whole dish is rounded out with a tamari for depth. For the best flavor, use as many kinds of mushrooms as you can get, and let them really brown when searing; that caramelization adds a lot of depth to the sauce. Maitake mushrooms give this a brisketlike texture, in a very good way.

Mushroom Bourguignon

butter or extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed

mushrooms,

salt and black pepper

leek

carrots, thinly sliced

garlic (2 minced, 1 grated to a paste)

tomato paste

all-purpose flour

beef, mushroom or vegetable broth

tamari or soy sauce, plus more to taste

thyme thyme

Smoked paprika,

Polenta, egg noodles

flat-leaf parsley,

Add 2 tablespoons butter or oil to a large Dutch oven or pot and set it over medium heat. When the fat is hot, stir in half the mushrooms and half the pearl onions. (If it doesn’t all fit in the pot in one layer, you might have to do this in three batches, rather than two.) Without moving them around too much, cook the mushrooms until they are brown on one side, about 3 minutes. Stir and let them brown on the other side, 2 to 3 minutes more. Use a slotted spoon to transfer mushrooms and onions to a large bowl or plate and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat with another 2 tablespoons butter and the remaining mushrooms and pearl onions, seasoning them as you go.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Add another 1 tablespoon butter or oil to pan. Add leeks and carrot and sauté until the leeks turn lightly golden and start to soften, 5 minutes. Add the 2 minced garlic cloves and sauté for 1 minute longer. Stir in tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Stir in flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute, then add wine, broth, 1 tablespoon tamari, thyme and bay leaf, scraping up the brown bits at bottom of pot.

Add reserved cooked mushrooms and pearl onions back to the pot and bring to a simmer. Partly cover the pot and simmer on low heat until carrots and onions are tender and sauce is thick, 30 to 40 minutes. Taste and add more salt and tamari if needed. Stir in the grated garlic clove.

Just before serving, heat a small skillet over high heat and add 1/2 tablespoon butter or oil. Add half of the sliced chanterelles or oyster mushrooms and let cook without moving until they are crisp and brown on one side, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with salt and smoked paprika. Repeat with remaining butter and mushrooms. Serve mushroom Bourguignon over polenta, noodles or mashed potatoes, topped with fried mushrooms and parsley.

Meat Sauce

Basic Meat Sauce recipe

oregano oregano leaves

basil basil

coffee

Salt and black pepper

To the basic meat sauce mixture add the remaining ingredients.

Simmer about 1 hour, until the mixture is thick.

Sauce can be refrigerated up to three days or frozen for longer.

There is nothing to stop you from serving spiced beef in red wine at a dinner party, but proper cooking should not be undertaken only for company. I make a batch of the beef and, when it is cool, bag it up in single portions and put it in the freezer. It makes a great warming supper for nights when you are lazing on a sofa watching television. Just because it's Wednesday, you need not have to resort to a bagel or grilled cheese for dinner.

Spiced Beef in Red Wine

bacon, roughly chopped

onions,

leeks, white and light-green parts only, roughly chopped

parsley

chuck

vegetable oil,

red wine

beef stock beef broth

Worcestershire sauce

star anise

brown sugar

Working in batches in a food processor, process bacon, onions, leeks, carrots and parsley until finely chopped. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, and set aside. Place flour in a freezer bag or other plastic bag. Season with salt and pepper. Add steak cubes, seal bag, and shake until cubes are well coated.

Place a flameproof casserole dish over medium heat, and add 2 tablespoons oil. When hot, add beef in batches, turning until well seared on all sides. As beef is browned, transfer to a plate, and set aside.

If casserole dish is dry, add 1 tablespoon oil. Place over medium heat, and add bacon and vegetable mixture and ground cloves. Sauté until softened, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine wine, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, star anise and brown sugar. Place over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil. When vegetables have softened, pour liquid over vegetables.

Return beef to pan, and stir well. Bring to a boil, partly cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer gently until beef is tender, about 2 hours. Serve hot. If desired, stew may be cooked and then covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for a month.

A timpano is a highly festive, drum-shaped, baked pasta torte filled with all kinds of delectable goodies — meatballs, cheeses, sausages or ragù, hard-boiled eggs and penne, all coated in a rich Sunday-gravy-type tomato sauce. This updated version is more streamlined, nixing the eggs and meatballs in flavor of roasted squash and sautéed garlicky broccoli rabe, and using purchased fresh pasta sheets instead of homemade. It’s lighter, a little easier and a lot more colorful, without sacrificing the cheesy, meaty essence of the dish.

Making a timpano is undeniably a project, but you can do much of the work a few days ahead, including making the sauce and cooking the vegetables, which can be made up to 2 days ahead. Then set aside half an hour before baking to layer everything in the mold. Serve this at a dinner party when you’re looking to impress.

Modern Timpano

extra-virgin olive oil,

onion,

red chile flakes

salt,

tomatoes

basil, basil sprig

butternut squash

(about broccoli

ricotta

black pepper

nutmeg

penne rigate pasta

buffalo mozzarella (drained weight; usually about 2 balls), torn into bite-size pieces

salami,

Unsalted butter,

pasta sheets (usually sold for lasagna)

Make the sauce: In a large skillet over medium-high heat, warm 1 tablespoon of oil. Add sausage and cook until well browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.

Return pan to heat, add another tablespoon of oil and stir in smashed garlic cloves. Sauté for 1 minute, then stir in the onion, red chile flakes and a large pinch of kosher salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until garlic is browned around the edges and onion is softened, 7 to 10 minutes.

Pour in wine and let simmer until reduced by half, about 5 minutes.

Stir in tomato purée, basil sprig and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Bring to a very gentle simmer and cook until thick and deeply flavored, 40 to 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, roast the squash: Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place squash on a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil, salt and pepper, and toss well to coat. Roast until browned and tender, 35 to 40 minutes, turning the squash pieces after 20 minutes so they cook evenly. Let cool.

Prepare the broccoli rabe: Roughly cut up the rabe into 1-inch pieces. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, warm remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Add sliced garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Stir in broccoli rabe and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook, tossing frequently, until just barely tender, 5 to 7 minutes.  If the garlic starts to get very brown before the rabe is tender, add a tablespoon of water to the pan if necessary. Let cool.

Prepare the ricotta mixture: In a medium bowl, stir together ricotta, egg, 1/4 cup chopped basil, the black pepper and the nutmeg.

Cook the penne in a large pot of very well-salted water for 4 minutes (it won’t even be halfway cooked, but will finish cooking in the timpano). Drain and put penne into a large bowl. Toss with the sauce, sausage, mozzarella, and salami or prosciutto.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter bottom and sides of a 3- to 4-quart Dutch oven.

Assemble the timpano: Brush any clinging cornmeal or flour from the pasta sheets if necessary. Use pasta sheets to cover bottom and up the sides of the pot, patching as needed to make sure there are no gaps. Leave any overhanging dough draped over the sides to help cover the filling.

Spoon 1/3 of the pasta mixture into the bottom of the pot. For the best presentation when you cut this, you could try to make sure that all the penne face the same way, but it’s not essential. Top with the ricotta mixture, then another 1/3 of the pasta. Arrange squash pieces on top of pasta, and tuck broccoli rabe around and over squash. Finish with a layer of the remaining pasta mixture.

Tuck the overhanging lasagna over the filling, and fill in any gaps with more pasta dough. You want to make sure the whole top is covered. Brush top of the timpano with water to make sure that the casserole is tightly sealed. Cover the Dutch oven with its cover or with foil.

Transfer pot to oven and bake for 1 hour. Uncover pot and continue cooking until it reaches an internal temperature of 120 degrees, about 15 to 20 minutes longer. Let it cool, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Run a butter knife along the edges of the pot to make sure the timpano isn’t sticking. Place a large platter or cutting board over the pot and flip, unmolding the timpano from the pot. Let cool 10 to 20 minutes more before slicing and serving.

A streamlined dinner-party centerpiece that is just as delectable as more authentic versions, but faster, easier and a bit lighter.

Timpano

Wow your guests with this vegan and savoury &quot;beef&quot; wellington made with mushrooms, white bean, sweet potato and walnuts for the filling. Wrapped in flaky and buttery puff pastry, and baked until golden. This is an impressive meaty main-dish that&#039;s higher in protein than most vegan wellington recipes, due to the addition of beans and walnuts in the mushroom filling!

Vegan Mushroom Wellington

potato

olive oil (, divided)

sea salt

oz cremini mushrooms (, roughly chopped)

walnuts

(400 ml) white beans (, strained and rinsed (1 1/2 cups))

shallots (finely chopped)

garlic (finely chopped)

tsp sea salt

cinnamon

thyme leaves

½ tbsp tamari

parsley ((finely chopped))

vegan puff pastry ((14-ounce package, thawed))

butter

sesame seeds

vegan gravy

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. In a baking tray, toss the sweet potatoes with 2 tbsp olive oil and sea salt. Spread onto the tray and roast  until golden and fork tender, 25 minutes. Place to the side.

Pulse the cremini mushrooms in a food processor until finely chopped,, place in a bowl to the side. Add the walnuts to the food processor and pulse until very finely ground. Place in a bowl to the side. Add the white beans to the food process and pulse until a mashed consistency. Place to the side.

In a large skillet add the shallots, garlic  sea salt, drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and cook on medium heat until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the mushroom and walnut and cook on medium until the mushroom has softened and most of the water is removed, about 6 minutes.

Pour in 2 tbsp more olive oil and then add in the mashed white beans and cooked sweet potatoes. Sprinkle the filling with cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme and fresh parsley. Pour in the red wine, tamari and tomato paste. Mix everything to combine and cook on a low simmer until most of the moisture is removed. Set the filling aside.

Filling

Allow the rolls of puff pastry to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling them out and assembling your dish. Pre-heat oven to 400F/200C. When the pastry has thawed, roll them out to lay flat on the baking tray.  

Place one sheet on the tray, scoop the filling into the middle to form a log leaving at least a 1 inch border. Top with the second sheet of pastry and press down the edges. Trim any excess and crimp the base with a fork. (Optional to re-roll excess dough and use small cookie cutter to make decorative pastry for the top).

Cut several slits in the top off the pastry at an angle to leg out steam, optional to top with your cut out pastry shapes. Paint the top with melted vegan butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds

Cook until the pastry is golden and flaky, about 40-50 minutes. If the edges brown first, loosely cover those with tin foil unti the middle is more golden too. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before slicing. Optional to serve with vegan gravy.  

Assembly

You might skim this recipe and think it looks anything but lazy. But compared to the way Samin Nosrat has always made Bolognese, this sugo is a piece of cake. This recipe, adapted from my cookbook, “Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share With People You Love” (Random House, 2025), there’s no soffritto to chop and fry, no endless browning of the meat and no deglazing. You just get everything into the pot with minimum hassle and simmer it until it’s tender, occasionally giving it a stir. The only real effort involves taking the cooked meat off the bone and shredding it, but even that’s a small price to pay for three glorious quarts of rich, meaty sauce.

Lazy Sugo

2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes, preferably San Marzano

red pepper

dry red or white wine

pork

beef shank

yellow onions, peeled and halved lengthwise through the root

garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Parmesan rinds

bay leaves

Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)

sugar (optional)

NYT Cooking

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Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Sue Li.

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Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl and use your hands to thoroughly crush them (have some fun!). Pour 1 1/4 cups water into the cans and swirl to rinse any remaining juice off the sides. Add the water to the crushed tomatoes and set aside.

Set a large nonreactive Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the oil and tomato paste. Cook, gently breaking up the paste with a wooden spoon, until the oil turns uniformly orange, about 3 minutes. Stir in the red pepper and wine, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, pork, beef shank, onions, garlic, Parmesan rinds and bay leaves. Season generously with salt and black pepper, increase the heat to medium-high and, stirring regularly, bring the sauce to a simmer.

Partly cover the pot and reduce the heat to keep the sauce at a gentle simmer. Stir and scrape occasionally to prevent scorching, especially in the center of the pot, where the meat is most likely to stick. Cook until both the beef and the pork are falling off the bone, about 3 1/2 hours for the beef, and 4 1/2 hours for the pork, depending on the size of the pieces of meat. As the meat is cooked, use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove it from the sauce and set aside.

Once all the meat is cooked, turn off the heat and remove and discard the onions, Parmesan rinds and bay leaves from the sauce. Once the meat is cool enough to handle, pick through it and discard the bones, gristle and soft fat clumps, reserving the cartilaginous bits and hard fat strips. Use forks or your hands to shred the meat and return it to the sauce. Very finely chop the cartilaginous bits (they will add body!) from the shank and any kind of hard fat (it will add so much texture and flavor!) from the pork and return it to the sauce.

Return the sauce to a simmer and adjust the seasoning with salt, black pepper and sugar if needed. Cook until the flavors have melded and the sauce has reduced to your desired thickness, another 20 to 30 minutes.

Cover and refrigerate leftovers for up to 1 week or freeze in an airtight container for up to 6 months. Return to a boil before serving.

https://vp.nyt.com/video/2025/09/15/149135_1_Lazy-Sugo_wg_480p.mp4

The New York Times Cooking

“Maybe just a little more cheese. Oops. [LAUGHS] I tried to grate the cheese on the fork. I’m so tired, you guys. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, I’m Samin Nosrat. I’m here at the New York Times Cooking Studio Kitchen in beautiful New York City. And today, we’re going to make my lazy sugo. Great?” “Yeah, what is it?” “All right, what is lazy sugo? Why is it lazy? What’s a sugo? Sugo is an Italian word for meat sauce. And this one is lazy because I cut out making sofrito, which I was taught to chop laboriously with a big knife, red onion and celery and carrot, for many, many minutes into teeny tiny pieces and then brown it in an abundance of olive oil for up to 45 minutes. But my cooking has really simplified over time. And I thought about how can I make something really flavorful, but maybe not quite as laborious. So this does have a few sort of moments that require some labor. But comparatively, it’s quite lazy.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “We’re going to start with two cans of tomatoes. I always suggest quite heartily that people use San Marzano or San Marzano-style tomatoes, very flavorful tomato of Italy. Save that can. I like this step of working into a bowl. So with your hands, you're just going to crush them all up. It’s very fun. To me, any opportunity to stick my hands in it’s a good thing, largely because anytime when I’m using my hands, I get out of my head. And I spend a lot of time in my head. So cooking’s a really good opportunity to remember I have a body, [LAUGHS]: I have a cup and 1/4 of water, and I’m just going to swirl between the two cans to get as much of the tomato gooeyness off. Got most of that out there. Now we can set this aside, rinse off our hands. When I salt meat, I like to use a nice five-fingered pinch. It’s the way to get the most even distribution across the meat. This is diamond crystal kosher salt. It’s honestly not that salty. It’s light and very flaky, so it will stick really beautifully to the meat, nicely and evenly. It starts breaking down proteins, tenderizing meat, and seasoning it from within. That’s why we salt in advance. The sugos that I learned in my early cooking career in Italy often had a mixture of meats, like pork and veal and beef or pork and beef. It was never just pork or just beef. So I thought really carefully about how to streamline things. And pork shoulder is just such a great, all-purpose cut of pork. But getting it on the bone, if possible, because that bone is going to do the work of adding some collagen into the stock, enriching it, and also just some extra flavor. It’s almost like you’re making a bone broth and a meat sauce at the same time. Same thing with osso buco, this beautiful shank bone has a big bit of marrow in the middle that’s going to come out into the sauce and enrich it and make it really flavorful. And then that bone, again, is going to release its collagenous parts and all the things extra flavor into the sauce. You’re going to want a nice big Dutch oven or, if you don’t have a Dutch oven, just a big pot with the thickest bottom that you have. Preheat for a moment over medium heat. First, we’re just going to toast the tomato paste. I like using tomato paste and tomatoes. So I can layer the flavor. Tomato paste is so much more concentrated in flavor. It’s sweeter, it’s richer, it has a deeper taste. And of course, the San Marzano tomatoes are sweet and light. I will say, I prefer buying the tomato paste in the tube, the Italian style, over the little cans. I find it to be more tomatoey. And if you look closely, you’ll see sometimes it says, like, doppio concentrato or triplo concentrato. And that’s how far reduced it’s been. Plus, a really cool thing. I learned on the internet, they line the tomato paste tubes with a different metal that’s kind of golden-colored. You can save your tomato paste tubes and cut them open and then make beautiful Christmas ornaments or other artistic things with them. So this sizzling is perfect. We’re just going to stir the paste to break it up. You can start seeing the oil’s taking on a nice orange color. I love that orange oil color. I think of it like pepperoni pizza. This takes, like, two to three minutes. You kind of go before burning. [LAUGHS]: Stop before it burns. And then we’ll add a pinch of chili flakes and some wine. So that’s just going to simmer for a couple minutes. And while that simmers, we’ll get all of the rest of the ingredients ready to go into the pot. I’m going to peel some onions and keep them in halves. Like I said, this recipe is lazy and simple because there’s no sofrito. But we still want some onion flavor. I thought of the halved onions in the classic and iconic Marcella Hazan tomato sauce recipe. So that’s where the inspiration for these onions came from. With onions and garlic, the bigger the form, the more subtle the taste. So when you chop garlic or onions really finely and sizzle them, they’re going to be the most garlicky or the most oniony. When you leave them whole in cloves or even a head of garlic or a whole or a half onion, it’s going to be a lot more subtle in flavor, but it’s still adding something really important. So I’m just going to throw these straight in the sauce as I peel them. It’s important to leave the root end on, though, because that’s what’s going to keep the onion from falling apart in the sauce so we can just pull it out later. Some garlic. I used to be so strictly anti-smush. And then I was like, this is a million times faster. [LAUGHS]: What am I doing? Every grandma since the beginning of time has smushed the garlic. It’s fine. So this I’m just going to slice thinly. The other sort of amazing shortcut step that we’re skipping completely from this is we’re not browning any of the meat, another intentional thing that I just realized. It’s still going to be really delicious and flavorful without causing all of that splatter and browning. These are the most generous Parmesan rinds I’ve ever seen. [LAUGHS]: So they still have quite a lot of Parmesan on them. They’re going to add so much flavor. But what a Parmesan rind is it’s just the dried up outside of a Parmesan wheel. But it’s still the same cheese, all of the flavor benefits of Parmesan that are going to soak into the sauce. And then we’ll just pull them out later. So that’s a super important ingredient. Bay leaves because it’s my favorite. My memoir is going to one day be called ‘A Bay Leaf in Every Pot' [LAUGHS]: Generous amount of pepper, generous amount of salt. And as a reminder, we salted this meat in advance. So some of the salt in the dish is going to come from the salt that we’ll add. But also, the salt is not only for seasoning the meat, it’s also for tenderizing it and helping it to cook. It’s not going to be in a single layer, and that’s fine. But just keep that in mind because that means all of the pressure and the weight and the fact that tomatoes are full of sugar is going to increase the possibility of scorching. So this is something that you have to keep an eye on and make sure that it doesn’t burn while it’s cooking. Sort of do your best [LAUGHS]: to reach down to the bottom, get everything settled. This makes a lot of sugo. But my policy with anything that takes more than like 45 minutes to cook, basically, [LAUGHS]: is you should have enough for later, enough to put in the freezer. We’re starting this on medium, medium high to bring it up. And once it comes to a simmer, we’ll turn it down to medium or whatever temperature is going to keep that at a gentle simmer. This dish does take at least three, three and half hours to cook through until the meat is falling off the bone. That’s the cue for when it’s done. So it’s really about just gentle cooking over a long period of time. Every once in a while, come back and give it a stir. Make sure nothing’s sticking to the bottom of the pot. Everything came up to a simmer. And I want to show you we have a swap. So this is the pot we put on about an hour ago. And that one has been cooking about four hours. And I just want to show you how different they are. This one, the meat is still so tough and clinging to the bone. It’s not even ready to come off, Maybe a little bit there, but still quite tough. Whereas here, every time I pick up a piece of meat, it sort of flakes apart into little shreds. So this is pretty much ready to move on to the next step. So we’re going to let that one keep cooking. At this point, we can use a slotted spoon or tongs to fish all of the cooked meat out. Usually I feel like pork takes a little bit longer. If you so desire, and you want to keep an eye on it, you can pull the beef out as it’s done and then let the pork keep cooking. But this all seemed to cook at about the same rate. The bones have done their work and sort of flavored the sauce. So basically, the bay leaves, the onions, the Parm rinds, and the bones are what’s going into the discard bowl. And everything else for now can come into here. I’m pretty conservative I don’t like to waste meat, but there were big pieces of fat. So I may not keep all of this fat. If there’s any gristle, like anything that feels like it would be too chewy and just be unpleasant to eat, I’ll get rid of that. This is probably the most work in the sugo is this straining and shredding. I just want to show you we got all the marrow out. So I can discard that bone. This is also the kind of thing that would benefit from being made and then resting overnight before you eat it. So you could totally get to this point, and then let it cool. It’ll be a lot easier to handle when the meat’s cool. And also, as a grandma always said, things like this taste better the next day anyway, so. I like to spread it out to let it cool off. The beef looks like it’s just ready to shred really quite easily. And if you don’t want to use your fingers or it’s too hot, you can use two forks. I have to say, I like the texture of shredded meat better than just if I were to take a knife to this. It just is a little more natural. You’ll see it as it clings to your pasta in shreds rather than pieces, discrete pieces that you’ve cut. And look, even though we didn’t brown the meat, there’s still little brown bits from what was touching the bottom of the pot. So you’re going to get some of that yummy flavor from the Maillard reaction anyway. This meat, in particular, doesn’t seem to have too much cartilage. But I think, when cartilage is soft like and tender, usually I will keep it. It adds a little texture. It’s really yummy. At this point, it’s been so cooked down it’s not going to be offensive to anyone. This is a kind of a soft fat that I don’t I’m not a fan of keeping. The hard fat, like what was on the pork, the fat cap, that’s different. And that has a different quality. So once you shred this, it can just go back into the pot because this is all going to cook for another few minutes and come together. And we’ll season it and make sure it tastes really delicious. Stick this all back in here. So let me just deal with the fat and the cartilage. We’ll sort of decide what we want to keep. Yeah, this soft fat can go. This is all stuff I’m happy to just chop very finely. Oh, god, that fat’s really beautiful. I’m going to keep some because it was very pristine and quite beautiful, that fat cap. But I won’t keep all of it. Look at it. It’s just like I can press it, and it’s melting. Soft fat, they come from different parts of the muscle. And the hard fat, it’s like what we prize on the outside of a prime rib roast, whereas soft fat is the stuff that a lot of times gets caught in between your teeth when you’re eating a piece of brisket. [LAUGHS]: It has a different quality. This is like melt-in-your-mouth butter fat. It will disappear into the sauce and just add some body and richness. I don’t want it to be a super greasy sauce. But a little like butter in your ragu [LAUGHS]: when you’re sitting down to your bowl of pasta is not bad. It’s still a little bit on the juicy side. So let’s see where we are. So the main things I’m going to taste and adjust for at this point are salt and sweetness. And I actually think it’s plenty sweet. The tomato paste and the tomatoes did great. I don’t think it needs any sugar. Me being me, I’m going to add a little more salt. I try to be conservative with my pasta sauces because I always want to leave a little wiggle room because I want pasta water to be very heavily salted. So this is great. We’re going to put on some water to come to a boil, cook some pasta, and make ourselves a bowl of ragu pasta -- sugo pasta -- pasta with sugo, sorry. [LAUGHS] The sauce has been simmering for a few minutes. I’m just going to skim the fat off with a ladle. So the easiest way to do that is to use the bottom of the ladle to sort of create a whirlpool and gently coax all the fat to the edge of the pot, and then go in the opposite direction, just carefully get as much of it off as I can. And if you don’t want to chase the fat around the top of your pot, you can let this cool in the fridge and just spoon it off. It’ll come off really easy. And you don’t have to be like, super crazy. You don’t have to get every bit. But it’s just that I don’t want there to be just greasy stuff at the bottom. And I’m going to add a little butter. Who’s lying? Who’s lying? Who’s lying? Great, so I got about half of it off. Let’s check on our pasta. It’s almost ready. So one of the cardinal rules of pasta -- pasta is sacred. And apart from pesto, which you don’t heat, like basil pesto, one of the cardinal rules is hot pasta goes into a pan with hot sauce. So I want to have my simmering pan of sauce ready, stir up the sugo, bring some over here. If it were in the fridge or the freezer, I would bring it back up to a boil with a little splash of water and then transfer it into my saute pan. Cooked pasta, beautiful, directly into the pan. This is a very full pan. I live in fear [LAUGHS]: of there not being enough food. So I always make too much. In order to get the sauce to coat the pasta. It can’t be too tight or too loose. That’s how we talk about pasta sauces. Too tight is kind of too thick and clingy. Too loose is too watery, where it’s soupy in the bowl. So this is kind of a funny middle place right now. I feel like there’s a lot of meat, but not a lot of sauce. I’m going to bring another spoonful of sauce over, and then the magic is going to start to happen with cold butter. There we go. One of the things I learned when I lived in Italy is there should never be sauce at the bottom of the bowl. When you’re done eating your pasta. There should always be the exact right amount of sauce to coat your pasta and no more. I’m going to add maybe 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter. And I like to add it cold and let the heat melt the butter into the pasta. And it’s going to get super glossy. This is a little tight, I don’t see any liquid at the side of the pan. And I do want it to be a little saucier. I’m going to bring a tiny bit of water over. And again, when you’re using pasta water, be conscious that you’re also bringing salt over. So luckily, I kept this a little under-seasoned with that in mind. There we go. Oh, my god, it’s starting to look so good. My other last tip is you got to heat your pasta bowl with a little pasta water because we just did all this work to make this perfect pan of pasta. And the last thing you want to do is put it in a cold ceramic bowl where it’ll just seize up, and all the fat will immediately start to congeal. So just quickly heat that bowl up. Much better. All right, so I hope that this lazy sugo is as exciting to you as it is to me. I think I’ve spent a lot of time in my cooking career learning about tradition and trying to adhere to tradition. And as I’ve matured, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve really changed the way I think about cooking to aim toward the most for the least. So this is not a traditional sugo, by any means. But it still delivers so much of that delicious sitting at a big Italian family table feeling. It’s super complex, sweet, salty, savory, just really filling and satisfying. If you’ve never made a sugo or a ragu because it has felt too overwhelming, this is a great way to begin and introduce you to this idea of slow cooking that doesn’t take all of your attention. You can be doing other stuff in the background but still have a really amazing group meal at the end of your cooking project. You can find this recipe at NewYorkTimesCooking.com and in my brand new cookbook, ‘Good Things.’” [MUSIC PLAYING]

Honey cakes are an inevitable part of the Rosh Hashana meal, but this one, with its deep, spicy flavor and gorgeous hue, will be welcome any time of year.

Red Wine Honey Cake With Plums

Grease spray,

all-purpose flour (2 1/2

baking powder (2 teaspoons)

baking soda (1/2 teaspoon)

salt (1/2 teaspoon)

cinnamon (1 1/2 teaspoons)

cardamom (1 teaspoon)

ground ginger (1 teaspoon)

eggs

granulated sugar (1 cup)

ginger

yellow plums

lemon

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/04/15/dining/honeycake/honeycake-square640.jpg

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Place a rack in the middle of the oven; heat to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan, including center tube.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.

In another large bowl, whisk eggs well. Whisk in sugar, oil, 1 cup honey, the wine and the fresh ginger until well combined. Whisk in dry ingredients until smooth.

Pour batter into pan and bake until springy to the touch and a cake tester comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes, then unmold the cake and let cool completely.

Meanwhile, pit and quarter plums. In a medium bowl, toss plums with remaining 2 tablespoons honey and the thyme. Add more honey to taste and let macerate for at least 30 minutes. Serve cake sliced and garnished with plums and thyme branches.

So good and so easy!!  I was craving a cake late at night and on a whim decided to make a mini-version using 1/3 the recipe in a 6" round pan.  I baked it in a toaster oven at 350 for 40 minutes, and it came out perfect!  The only "wine" I had open was a Pommeau (kind of a cross between apple brandy and apple cider) and I daresay the apple-ness really made this cake sing.  Pommeaus can be sweet, so I cut way back on the sugar.  I also didn't have cardamom so used coriander instead.  YUM.

This recipe showed up recently in a newsletter and because I had the ingredients on hand I made it on a whim.  Definitely a cake to be enjoyed year round it’s terrific!  I followed the cake recipe exactly but didn’t bother with the plums, it’s perfect on its own. The flavor and texture are spot on.  Some of the top stuck to the pan, now I just need to work on my Bundt cake unmolding technique…

Delicious!  Out of plum season, so I made thyme simple syrup and used it in place of powdered sugar in whipped cream.  It took quite a bit of fresh thyme to get the level of flavor in the syrup I was looking for, but what a great flavor combo!

I made this and the apple butter honey cakes, and they were basically interchangeable. I used the plum compote recipe from a cornmeal plum scone recipe also with NYT. The plum compote was the bigger hit. The cake texture was excellent and I’d totally make again if some leftover good wine. Did decrease sugar as others suggested. Might add slightly more spice

I welcome any insight into how this Might bake in a 10 inch round silicone pan. Any caveats?

I have made honey cakes from many recipes over the years and this is by far the best!

Delicious! My grandchildren loved it. Followed the recipe except for the plums. The plums I purchased were mealy. Cake was not too sweet. The flavor was deep, rich and spicy. The surprise ingredient was the lemon thyme! Don't omit it. My only problem was that the cake stuck to the bundt pan even though I thoroughly greased it and followed the cooling directions.
Definitely will make Rosh Hashana cake again.

So delicious! To make gluten-free, I substituted All Purpose flower with Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour and turned out fantastic!

I halved the recipe (except for the eggs- I used 2) and subbed in a decreased amount of dark brown sugar because the only red wine I had is already turning to vinegar so I had to use sweet vermouth instead. I made it with whole wheat flour. I also added some orange extract. It’s great. but next time, I’ll use real red wine instead of the vermouth because the flavor combination just sounds so right

Made this with 1 cup of honey and 1/3 cup of sugar. Definitely use the darkest honey possible for more intense flavor. Subbed in 1 and 1/4 cups of almond flour.Used a combination of cardamom and allspice instead of just cardamom and added a few grinds of black pepper as well. Served with ice cream but honestly, I liked it better plain. This will be our new holiday honey cake.

A delicious light, flavorful cake. Easy to make - used 1/2 cup sugar & that was fine. Served with coffee whipped cream. A big hit

I've been making this cake since reading it! Last week I had some ripe peaches so I tried making this into an upside down cake. I arranged the cut peaches in a 10" springform pan, poured the caramel over them and then added the cake batter. When I checked at the usual time it was still liquid! I kept it in the oven checking every 10 minutes. After about 1 1/2 hours, it seemed done. (Hoping it wasn't burnt) It was delicious! Will make with apples and a honey caramel for Rosh Hashanah!

This cake is my favorite ever. Moist and rich and deeply flavorful. And easy! AND mine was gluten free! I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten free baking mix. (and 1/2 cup sugar.) Thank you Melissa. Happy New Year!

Passed on the plums and thyme.  Served warm with vanilla ice cream.  Delicious!!!

My plums are unripe but this cake is totally fine solo (although I will probably whip some cream to go with it). I used a mix of almond, oat, and brown rice flours and left out the sugar entirely. It is still very sweet! I cannot imagine what it would taste like with sugar too. Will definitely make again, maybe next time when my plums are in better shape.

Wow!! This was my first-ever honey cake, and it will become a regular part of my repertoire. I fed it to my synagogue choir last night -- many of whom are great bakers with their own honey cake specialties -- and it was a HUGE hit. I didn't do the plums, but served it with some mascarpone whipped cream, which was lovely. I used a beautiful Merlot for the wine part -- definitely worth using the best wine, honey and olive oil you have.

Tastes great. I only used half a cup of sugar and agree with dropping all the sugar, given the honey and wine. I would like it less sweet. I also used whole wheat pastry flour, which was fine. The spices are great.

Yum, great flavors. I buttered & sugared the pan, used scant 1/2 t salt, 2 large eggs (room temp), 1 cup olive oil, 3/4 cup sugar, and 3/4 cup honey. Didn't use fresh ginger (only ground), as I didn't have on hand. Didn't do fresh plums but good served with pears, yogurt, and honey. Baked about 44 minutes at 350.

Next time I'd further reduce sugar to 1/2 cup (and keep the 3/4 cup honey). I'd also maybe increase the red wine to 1 cup so the flavor comes out more. Also add orange zest next time.

Before baking this cake I'd never met a honey cake I liked. Totally with Melissa Clark on this. Honeycakes are usually dry, leaden, tasteless, or some combination. This, however, is delicious: moist, with a really lovely, complex flavor thanks to the spices and red wine (and especially if you get a robust, spicy red). I've baked this several times now and it's always a HUGE hit.

Made this cake on the fly with just a few adjustments and it turned out perfect! Here’s what I did: reduce olive oil to 1/2 cup; add 1/4 more red wine; add 1/2 cup whole milk; omit fresh ginger (because I didn’t have any on hand, but I think more ginger would overpower the wine). It baked in exactly 45 minutes at 350F in a 9x9 square glass dish, greased and floured. Easiest, tastiest cake I have ever made and I can’t wait to play on it with different flavors.
Note: I bake at high altitude. 

Edit to my last note: I also omitted the sugar! Yikes, that would have made it way too sweet. 

35 minutes into baking  it fell! I live at 7,000 feet and perhaps I should have made adjustments for altitude. Oops

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