Yummy macaroni with pasture-finished ground beef

April 17th, 2010

Want to know one of the best dishes I’ve had in a long time?  How about this one:

Now, do you want to know how to make it?  Sharing that with you would be a pleasure for me.  I typed in a few ingredients into food blog search that I had lying around the house.  When we have a few things lying around the house it doesn’t make sense to go to the grocery store, right?  This incredible recipe was waiting at the other end of the search button and I’d like to share what I did using it.  One of the major things I loved about this dish was the celery seeds.  It is a make or break deal.  Use the celery seeds!

If you’re interested in a conversation related to some of the concepts around locally raised or pasture-raised livestock I found this story interesting.  Since my wife and I have started a farm raising pasture-raised animals we have been learning a lot about this kind of thing.  It just makes so much sense.  We hope you’ll join us and find a producer near you that sells pasture-raised animals.  We’re not on there as of the time of this writing, but we are going to register soon.

The beef I used in this recipe came from our wonderful friends over at Afton Field Farm.  It has such a rich flavor, is wonderfully lean and contains a much more dense set of nutrients than you can find in conventionally raised beef.  Not only that, but they aren’t polluting the environment with conventional fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.  Nope, the chickens do all that work (fertilizing, eating the bugs, and more) after the cattle get fat on the grass.  Back to the recipe, here’s what I did (feeds 4):

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion
• t tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lb of pasture-finished ground beef
• 2 cups of uncooked large macaroni noodles
• a bunch of fresh chopped parsley, about 1/2 cup
• 1 can diced tomatoes (or, if they are in season in your area, about 4 large diced tomatoes)
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 2 tablespoons worcestershire  sauce
• kosher salt, sea salt, or seasoning salt to taste
• crushed red pepper flakes to taste
• fresh ground pepper to taste

Method:

1. Begin cooking the macaroni, boiling it for the time listed on the package or until just tender
2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottom pan over medium heat
3. Chop and saute the onions in the pan, about 5 minutes or until soft
4. Add pasture-finished ground beef and saute until brown
5. Add pepper flakes, salt, celery seed and ground pepper to taste
6. Add the worcestershire  sauce
7. Add tomatoes and bring to a simmer
8. Drain the macaroni and add to the beef
9. Add the parsley and simmer for about 5 minutes more.

Serve this dish with a side of vegetables, like corn, and some bread, like my favorite — Pan Marino.  I hope you enjoy!