S
alsa Bolognese by heart (as memorized from the recipe by Marcella Hazan)
Bolognese sauce is one of my husband’s favorite things to eat. And with my dear baby girl’s birthday coming up, I wanted to prepare something special for her and my in-laws. Fortunately, like my pizza recipe, this is one I make so often that I know it by heart and I can even hack it in China, given the proper ingredients (all but two of which were available in the grocery store 1km away.)
I always tend to emphasize something in each recipe. In this one I will emphasize time and evaporation. This sauce needs to be on a slow simmer, uncovered, for minimum 3 hours - more is better. This recipe makes enough sauce for two dinners.
Ingredients:
2 parts ground beef (1kg)
1 part ground pork (500g)
1 big white onion (500g +/-)
4 ribs western celery (the stemmy kind; Chinese kind is too leafy)
2 medium carrots
3 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt (7g plus more to taste at the end)
Grated nutmeg (3.5 g or to taste)
Black pepper, to taste
Sugar, 10g
Whole milk, 1.5 cups (200? mL)
Dry White wine, same amount as milk (I lied this is hard to get in China, but I had some on hand)
Fresh, peeled or canned tomatoes, 1800g
500g Rigatoni OR homemade tagliatelle OR penne OR bowties as you wish, in China we had to order this online. (despite the popularity in the Commonwealth this sauce doesn’t stick too well to spaghetti)
Parmesan cheese for garnish (use the real kind or Null will come to your house and murder you)
Steps:
- chop your onion, celery, and carrot really finely. blend it with a Vitamix Blender if you are so inclined and like your sauce really smooth. If your beef or pork wasn’t ground at purchase (China thing, beef is expensive and not sold preground, some people think pre ground pork is suspicious) grind it by hand with the Mr. Miyagi chop. Do NOT grind meat with a food processor or blender, it fucks it up.
- Get a very large saucepan (8 qts plus.) Turn the range heat to medium high. Add your butter, olive oil and onion. Stir to coat properly. Cook for about 5-8 minutes or until the onion is translucent. add the celery and carrot and cook for 4 more minutes or so.
- Add the ground meat and stir continuously until the meat loses its raw red color. Add salt, sugar, pepper, and nutmeg.
- Add the milk and lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 80 minutes or until most of the water from the milk and veg is evaporated.
- Add the wine and tomatoes, simmer again for 90-120 mins or until the water is evaporated. If by some miracle all of the water evaporates faster than this timeframe, add water about 60mL at a time to prevent the sauce from scorching. You want the heat turned very low. Stir occasionally; every 25-30 mins or so. At the end of this process the fat should separate from the sauce with no watery layer in between.
- Boil your pasta of choice. If you made homemade tagliatelle in the interim you get a winner sticker just from me. Grate the Parmesan cheese and set it on the table to add to taste.
- Taste the sauce and correct for salt and pepper.
- Serve over pasta and enjoy. Serves 4-6 persons twice over.
Chain suggestions: since this makes a double recipe, you may reserve half the sauce and use it to prepare lasagna the next day. (You will use a bechamel sauce to do this… not difficult to make.) this sauce can also be frozen and reheated at a later time for a quick dinner option. Any leftovers can keep fine in the fridge, covered, for up to one week. Keep the sauce separate from the pasta and make fresh pasta for subsequent meals. I don’t need to tell you it’s easy to freeze prepped unbaked lasagne but, it is.
***important announcement: this recipe was brought to you by Vitamix Blenders. Whether you’re making bombs, bolognese, or brûlées, Vitamix will blend it.***
PS Le Menú for Baby’s Birthday
Appetizer: baked brie over bread w cherry jam
Salad: wedge salad w bacon, blue cheese, soy-sauce marinated hard boiled eggs, cilantro
Pasta: penne w sauce bolognese (see recipe above)
Secondi: roasted free range chicken with root vegetables
Dessert: black sesame paste and Elite Instant coffee flavored cake with cream cheese frosting
***another important announcment***This menu was brought to you by Elite Instant Coffee. Israel’s finest micro ground instant coffee is there for you during finals week, the Yom Kippur War, in the midst of preparing three course meals, when you’re sitting shiva for your cat, in the bomb shelter, for mixing with cocaine and snorting on a dare, aboard a submarine, abroad in foreign lands, in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, and until you are parted by death. ***