This past Saturday we hosted a dinner party with old friends who had temporarily moved out-of-town (but who were visiting for the weekend), along with another family as well. All in all there were 6 adults and 6 kids so everyone brought something.  We made a huge batch of pasta bolognese based on Mario Batali’s recipe from his Babbo cookbook and an extra large arugula, parmigiano and tomato salad.  We also bought proscuitto, mozarella and fresh pasta from our favorite Italian deli in Little Italy.  One family brought roasted vegetables and an apple cake; and the other family brought two pies.  It was a feast. (And just in case people were still hungry, mom ordered two pizzas.)

The bolognese sauce is delicious but required a lot of chopping: 6 stalks of celery, 4 carrots, 2 onions and 7 cloves of garlic.  We started making it on Friday so we would have enough time…

Alex peeling carrots

Alex chopping celery

Finally everything is chopped!

Sauteeing vegetables in olive oil until translucent

Once the vegetables were soft and translucent we added ground veal. (The recipe calls for 1/2 veal and 1/2 pork but we decided to try all veal this time).  We let that brown and then added tomato paste, milk and wine.  Then it just simmered for a long time.  We put in in the fridge over night and then reheated it on very low heat.  Served with fresh pasta and parmigiano-reggiano!

For the salad: we kept to the tried and true:

Arugula, parmigiano, grape tomatoes and lemon-olive oil dressing

Shaving parmigiano for the salad