I only recently learned the joy of cooking. For a long time I subsisted on microwave dinners and led a fairly tragic food life. Despite my mother teaching me about all the basics of cooking and how to balance flavors, it never really hooked me. But one day my friend, before leaving the country, taught me how to make an Indian dish called Sambar. After making it and enjoying it, I haven't touched microwave meals in months! I hope to share my adventures in food with you!
Bolognese was the second Italian dish I learned after Carbonara. I used to think Bolognese was just a meaty tomato sauce spaghetti with mushrooms and never really gave it much thought. What inspired me was this video by Genaro Contaldo. It turns out that Bolognese is actually a very old dish meat based dish with little tomato sauce. It has wonderfully rich slightly sweet taste. Having made this dish many times now, I think it is time to share it.
Meat
The heart of Bolognese is the meat, changes here will alter the character of this dish significantly. My favorite combination is 50/50 ground pork and beef. I have tried the 33/33/33 pork, beef, veal mix, which is great but pricey. The pork softens the beef taste slightly in texture and flavor. In this particular instance, however, I did not have pork, so this is 100% beef. Instead, I used pancetta and guanciale to add some salty pork goodness. It was also missing rosemary, but, the guanciale was pressed with rosemary on the surface, saving my ass once again.
You must cook the meat correctly to get the true flavor of the dish. First, the meat must be cooked until it is golden brown. You must boil off all the water that will come out of the meat, so that it can begin frying. Use medium-high heat to boil the water off and then quickly change to medium-low to complete the frying process. The meat will be grey while the water steams away, at this point it will be bland. Once it begins to fry, the oil will start to turn golden and the meat brown. Stir it often to prevent burning and reduce heat if it starts to sizzle loudly. The bottom of the frying pan must keep a thin layer of oil, do not let it dry out, add more oil if necessary.
Also, break down the ground beef into small bits as you stir it around, if you let it stay in meatball sized clumps, the sauce and the meat will not infuse as well, and you will get meatballs. You don't have to aggressively do this all in the beginning, what I do is every time I stir it I "chop" a bit with my spatula and press the back of the spatula down to break it up.
Wine
The next most important thing is the wine. Do not use a wine that you would not like to drink, we will add a lot of wine, and it will stand out in the final dish. Most cooking wines are too bitter for this dish. Chianti is a safe choice.
Broth
The choice of broth will have a moderate effect on the final dish. I find that a beef broth enhances the rich earthy flavors while a vegetable broth enhances the sweetness. In this cause I actually used a store bought vegetable broth with a homemade chicken broth, it led to a lighter sweeter variation.
Pasta
I usually use the wider Tagliatelle, however, spaghetti is also perfectly doable. The wider, rougher, pasta hold the sauce better in my opinion.
Cookware
I used a 15 inch 6 quart frying pan, this has enough surface area to boil off the water from the meat and deep enough to hold the sauce.
Ingredients (4 Servings)
- 1 pound 50/50 Ground Beef and Pork
- 6 Tablespoons of Olive Oil (Coat that frying pan!)
- 3 Sprigs Rosemary
- 2 Tablespoons Pancetta
- 1 sliver Guanciale Skin
- 250 ml Red Wine
- 2 Yellow Onions Roughly Cubed
- 2 Carrots Roughly Chopped
- 2 Celery Stalks Roughly Chopped
- 1.5 Liters Hot Vegetable / Chicken Broth
- 8 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 400 g Tagliatelle
- Salt and Pepper to Taste
Process
This dish doesn't require anything too exotic, the basic ingrediets seem kind of boring here.
Start with the meat. If you have multiple types, mix them up in a medium bowl. Make sure they are well mixed. Next, get your frying pan ready. Turn the heat to medium low and add the oil.
Once it begins shimmering, start adding the meat by pulling little blobs by hand and putting them in the pan. If you are using pancetta and/or guanciale, throw it in. Once all the meat is in, turn the heat up to medium-high to boil off the water that will come off the meat. Break up the meat methodically with your spatula.
Add the pancetta and guanciale if you have them.
Once the water is almost gone, turn the heat to medium low to slowly fry until the oil is golden and the meat is brown. Don't let the heat get away from you, don't burn it, it took about 20 minutes in total for me, but I do use low heat and patience 🙂
As soon as it is done, either remove from heat or add the wine. Add the wine to halt the frying process. Increase heat to medium. Wait for alcohol to boil away and evaporate a bit until it looks like an oily soup at the bottom.
Unlike with the meat water, do not wait for the wine to completely evaporate. Now, add the chopped onions, carrots, and celery. Mix it around and sweat the veggies. A good sign that this is done is that the onions just start to appear a little translucent and soft. You are not frying them, so don't try to brown the onions.
Throw on that tomato paste and mix it up very well. Let the sauce heat up. I chose to let some more liquid boil away here until the paste combines with the oil to make a lovely reddish oily sauce, however, again, watch your heat. I was using low heat at this point to avoid burning the oil.
Now, add the hot broth. This marks the end of the tricky phase, the rest is just slow cooking. Turn the heat to a simmer, usually medium low, and cook covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.
Finally, the ragu is done! Now prepare the pasta, making sure to salt the pasta water, and then serve!
There you have it, a fairly authentic Bolognese. Once you have the steps down it is rather easy to make and it always fills even the biggest appetite! Do you have your own way of making Bolognese? I would love to see it. Do you have any standard dishes that you can make blindfolded but are still incredible? Thank you for reading!