Ragoût is derived from ragoûter, which is french for “revive the appetite.” It is also the name of a thick, winter-time stew (of sorts) similar to the ragù that is made in Italy. Ragoût can be served as a main course dish, or it may just be used as a thick sauce to accompany potatoes, noodles, or some other form of starch. We had one last package of curried lamb sausage left in the freezer, so last night I prepared a spicy Ragoût to serve over rigatoni. As a surprise though I grilled some portabello mushrooms and snuck them in under the pasta. Topped with a generous amount of shaved pecorino romano, this made for a warm and hearty meal. In addition to the lamb curried sausage, I added onions, celery, and carrots and a lot of pureed tomatoes from our CSA’s hothouse . But there are no rules with ragoût. the imagination is really the only limit when cooking this dish. Recipes for this stew date back to the seventeenth century and vary widely. Some ragoûts are entirely vegetarian, while others are heavy on meat, and some cooks even introduce ingredients like cream to vary the flavor.