Do you ever have a thought in your head that is REALLY random?  I mean, there is nooooo reason whatsoever for this thought, it just pops in your head.  This thought is so random that you spend countless minutes, maybe even hours, thinking about this particular topic.

Yankee Doodle.  Yep, that was my thought the other day.  I was driving and I started singing that song in my head.  It is not like I saw a billboard or heard it on a commercial.  I just started thinking about it.  It was like all of a sudden he was ridin’ on a pony and I started analyzing the song.

The first part, I understand…the guy came to town riding on a horse or technically a pony.  Now why a grown man was riding a pony is a little unclear but who am I to judge.

It is the “stuck a feather in his cap” part that really got me thinking.  (Seriously, it was a long drive and there were too many commercials on the radio).  When he stuck the feather in his cap and called it macaroni, did he eat his hat?  Is that what they were telling us?

My interpretation was that anything tastes good with pasta.  Maybe Yankee Doodle was the guy who discovered if you add a noodle to an object that may be unappetizing, it would automatically taste good.  (I did Google the meaning of the song and I know I am waaaaay off.)

I kind of agree with Yankee Doodle.  No, I’m not going to eat my hat in a bowl of noodles…that would be silly…I don’t wear hats.  BUT I do think if I add something I’ve never tried before to a bowl of macaroni that the odds are high that I am going to like it better.  (Yum, feathers!)

This is how I felt the first time I had boar.  I really shouldn’t have been that scared of it since it is in the pig family.  I love pigs.  (Especially on my plate!)  But for some reason I was really hesitant to eat it until the chef added the pasta.

It has been one of my goals to try it at home.  I cheated a little bit and bought boar sausage from D’Artagnan so I knew it would be good.  (I am a huge fan of this company and buy some treats from there every now and then.)

What came out of my experiment, boar Bolognese.  (If you can’t find boar, I am sure it would taste great with pork sausage.)  Trust me, if you try this recipe, it will be a feather in your cap!  (Ba-dump-bump!)

Boar Bolognese

Ingredients

1 cup each of onion, celery and carrot

2 cloves of garlic

8.5 ounces of boar sausage, take it out of the casing

5 ounces of pancetta, chopped

1 can (14.5 ounce) of fire roasted tomatoes (diced)

1 cup cabernet

Olive oil

½ pound of your favorite macaroni

Directions

In a food processor, add carrot, onion, celery and garlic.  Pulse until it resembles a thick and chunky paste.

Take a large, deep pan over medium heat and coat the pan with oil.  Add the veggies and cook until the water that is released from the veggies has all evaporated.  You want it to brown a little so stir but not so frequently that the veggies don’t’ brown.  (This took me about 15 minutes…don’t rush it!)

Add the boar and pancetta and brown the meat.  Add the tomatoes and wine.  Cook until the liquid has reduced by half.

Add the tomato paste and cook until brown.  Lower your heat and simmer for 2 hours.   (Actually, at this point I popped it in the slowcooker and just let it cook on low) If it evaporates too quickly, add a little vegetable broth so the meat is just covered.

Serve over your favorite pasta.

If you notice that I didn’t use an abundance of seasoning, you would be right.  The boar sausage I purchased was VERY flavorful.  In addition, the pancetta is a bit salty so I didn’t need to season it any further.  As I always say, TASTE YOUR FOOD.  If it needs some salt and pepper, add it!

I am still not sure trying new foods was Yankee Doodle’s intention but calling anything “macaroni” sure works in my world.  (I won’t try pony no matter what you call it!)