Breakfast Bolognese

Bolognese is a beautiful thing. The quintessential ragú of meat and tomatoes where fat and acidity breaks down into a rich stew of balanced sweetness and umami flavors. Loaded with nostalgia as well, because I'm sure most of our mothers have made some form of pasta & meat sauce for us (tu mámi flavors?).

Most recipes for bolognese will call for ground beef and/or pork, but the beauty of this dish is that you can toss in whatever scraps or combination of meat you have. Leftover charcuterie, pancetta, sausage, ham, bacon, etc. My favorite combo is oxtail and bacon. This time around I used breakfast pork sausage, bacon and headcheese. Considering the breakfast flavors that are very specific to sausage and bacon, I thought about how I could further those flavors to complete a bolognese inspired by breakfast.

After the fat was rendered from the diced bacon and torn apart breakfast sausage & headcheese, I added diced onions and jalapeños until golden and really starting to come together. To that, I included garlic, bay leaf, cinnamon, star anise, soy sauce and some leftover red wine I had laying around (Charles Shaw Cabernet; only the best for me). Once the wine reduced and the brown bits were scraped up from the bottom I added peeled plum tomatoes and let that sucker simmer for about an hour and a half, once the tomatoes melted into the sauce and all the molecules mingled.  Added fresh cherry tomatoes and adjusted the seasoning with salt. Now it's time to assemble.

I paired the breakfast bolognese with french fry gnocchi and topped it off with an egg poached in coffee, soy sauce and maple syrup. Garnished with scallions, tarragon, basil and hush puppy breadcrumbs and black pepper.

The flavors of breakfast are definitely in there: egg, sausage, bacon, maple syrup, coffee and fried potatoes. I'm not looking to be overly conceptual with a novel idea, I just want to introduce familiar flavors to each other. Oh, and don't forget the runny egg yolk. That's almost as important as breakfast itself:

                          The Secret of the Ooze

Leftover French Fries

After procuring a buffet-size portion of leftover french fries, I was far from overwhelmed. I know french fries do not reheat very well (maybe, in the oven...maybe) but I've always thought about repurposing french fries the same way you would normally use potatoes. A lot of applications for potatoes usually call for them to be cooked all the way through and void of moisture, usually replacing the moisture with fat, dairy or eggs. To me, french fries are the ultimate version of a cooked and dry potato.

French Fry Gnocchi

I broke apart the soggy, cold fries into a blender and pulverized it until it became a fine powder (french fry flour). I then applied this flour the same way you would apply a cooked and riced potato in a gnocchi recipe. After forming the gnocchi, I boiled them and shocked them in ice water. Strained, patted dry and reserved in olive oil until ready to serve.

Once ready to serve, refried the gnocchi till crispy and add it to whatever sauce was suitable.

This is like a potato being repurposed and redefined through multiple iterations. To break it down, the potato goes through the following cooking stages (if made from triple-cooked french fries which, in my opinion, is the best way to cook them):

boiled
frozen
deep-fried
frozen
deep-fried
dried out
blended
formed into dough
boiled
shocked
reserved
pan-fried

I think the result is great. Gnocchi with a flavor all it's own but does not compete with accompanying sauce. The dryness of a leftover french fry prevents gumminess in the final dough. Though the gnocchi was a bit drier than I preferred so I think next time I will incorporate some freshly cooked potato along with the french fry flour for a better balance.

french fry gnocchi

lamb ragu

olives
celery leaf

lemon zest