We recently made Ragu Bolognese from Marcella Hazan’s recipe. The ony twist here was the use of Shiaoxing cooking wine, which is always around our pantry. Anyway, my wife spiked it with some hot sesame oil at supper last night, inspiring me to complete the thought and use Ragu Bolognese as the base for Szechuanese Dan Dan Noodles. I took some leftover Ragu with pasta, added a mixture of pan roasted & ground Szechuanese peppercorns with Tien Tsin peppers, then some dashes of dark soy sauce, hot sesame oil, and fish sauce. To give Tuscany its due I topped with grated Parmigiano Reggiano. The only thing I lacked was some raw green onions to sprinkle in after heating.
The result? The Szechuanese flavors dominated, making this more Dan Dan than Ragu, but the richness of the Ragu made it something more, something better. This sort of East-meets-West superposition is very satisfying. Marco Polo knew a good thing when he saw it.
Have Fun,
Rich