Meat broth with Quadrucci

by Sandra Jacopucci 1 February 2024

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Can you already smell it?

Today we have MEAT BROTH WITH QUADRUCCI and, to finish, the MIRANDOT. Well! I know you know how to make it, but who knows how many differences will come out and how many tips you can add!

Ingredients for the broth: 1 kg of mixed meat (beef and veal), a bone, 2 carrots, 2 ribs of celery (the outermost and greenest ones), half a white onion, 2 potatoes, 100 gr of tomato puree, 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 3 or 4 liters of water, salt to taste.

Ingredients for the pasta: eggs, 2 parts of durum wheat flour, 1 part of soft wheat flour (for pasta, the ratio is generally one egg per hundred grams of flour).

Procedure: There are two strategies to make an excellent broth: either put the meat and vegetables in cold water and then wait for it to boil, or if you prefer to enhance the boiled flavor, put all the ingredients in boiling water. I choose the first method. In a large pot with plenty of cold water (here it’s just under 4 liters), put all the ingredients together.

Turn on the stove and, once it starts to boil, lower the temperature.

Let it cook for at least 2 hours without a lid to allow for reduction. Salt moderately. When cooked, strain the broth with a strainer, removing all solid parts, and set aside.

As for the pasta, in this case, I made it with 3 eggs and three different types of flour: 2/4 durum wheat flour (Senatore Cappelli), ¼ soft wheat flour, both from ancient grains from heroic agriculture, ¼ white type 0 flour, but everyone can make it with the flours and in the ways they prefer.

I made the dough by hand (but you can use a mixer), divided it into two parts to work it more easily, formed two balls, and wrapped them in plastic wrap for about half an hour. Once the dough was stabilized, I rolled it out with a rolling pin (an operation that I love, a kind of time machine that takes me back a hundred years and more).

I obtained two large and thin disks but rough on the surface because I used durum wheat flour for the final rolling (if I wanted a smoother result, I would have used soft wheat flour). I let the fresh pasta dry in the air, on a kitchen towel, for at least half an hour. I rolled the two edges of the dough inwards and overlapped them. For the shape, I chose the “quadrucci” and, therefore, made a double cut in the two opposite directions…easier said than done.

With the broth boiling, I added the “quadrucci” which cook in a few minutes.

Serve the soup piping hot.

The boiled vegetables, usually considered “discard,” can be used as a side dish by mashing them with a fork and seasoning with salt, pepper, and fruity extra virgin olive oil to compensate for the organoleptic losses due to the long boiling. Slice the cooled meat and add raw oil, lemon, or other sauce to taste like mayonnaise, cocktail sauce, mustard… And here’s a nice second course, simple and tasty! Additionally, with the remaining meat, I made the “Mirandot,” a legacy of my grandmother Assunta: two turns of extra virgin olive oil in a non-stick pan with 2 thinly sliced onions (enough to make you cry!) and let them soften for quite a long time with the lid on (to exaggerate, I also add a clove of garlic in small pieces), and halfway through cooking, about ten ripe red cherry tomatoes cut in half.

Add about 100 gr of tomato puree, if desired. Let it cook for about twenty minutes, incorporate the previously minced meat with hands and a couple of ladles of freshly prepared broth. Cook again until you see a beautiful fairly uniform red color. Salt to taste.

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