Adding one ingredient to your bolognese tenderises the meat and creates a richer, silkier texture that can elevate your pasta dish.
Bolognese sauce, or ragu bolognese, is considered one of the cornerstone dishes of Italian cuisine. Like any traditional recipe, you’ll find it prepared with slight variations and local adaptations.
However, the core components of the dish remain unchanged, including beginning with a finely diced mixture of celery, carrot and onion called the soffrito, a combination of minced pork and beef, good-quality tinned tomatoes and of course, red wine.
The key to creating an exceptional bolognese lies in completing each cooking step correctly, with patience and care, avoiding any shortcuts. In fact, gentle simmering is essential for building the right flavour and texture.
However, there’s one ingredient that genuinely transforms the dish, something my Italian nonna would add without fail every time – milk.
The lactic acid and calcium help to soften the beef, while the milk counteracts the acidity of the wine and tomatoes, creating a smoother, richer sauce.
Ingredients
- Two tablespoons of olive oil
- Two carrots
- Two celery sticks
- One onion
- 150g of pork mince
- 150g of beef mince
- Three tins of chopped tomatoes
- One tablespoon of tomato puree
- Half a cup of red wine
- One cup of milk
- Salt and pepper
Method
When preparing a bolognese, the first job I address is assembling the soffrito base. This involves chopping the onion, carrots and celery into very small pieces, which usually takes up a fair amount of my time.
To speed things along, I used my food processor. While hand-chopping the vegetables would ordinarily take a good five to 10 minutes, the food processor managed it in mere seconds.
With the soffritto mixture prepared, I added oil to a substantial pan before adding the chopped vegetables. I favour leaving the onions, carrots and celery to cook gently for five to 10 minutes before continuing, as they need adequate softening to release their flavours.
Next, it was time to add the meat, allowing it to brown thoroughly before mixing in the tomato puree, salt, pepper and red wine to deglaze the pan.
This stage is critically important as it’s when the flavour elements that enhance the sauce form, and because any remaining alcohol needs to evaporate entirely – otherwise it creates an unwelcome sharpness in the sauce.
Next came the tinned tomatoes. For the finest flavour, I’m committed to the Mutti brand. As I favour a velvety-smooth sauce, I consistently blend the tinned tomatoes.
After the tinned tomatoes were processed, I added them to the pan, stirred everything thoroughly, then added the milk before mixing the sauce again.
I heated the sauce until boiling, then lowered it to a moderate temperature and allowed it to simmer covered for three hours.
The prolonged cooking period only intensifies the flavour – I merely stirred it every half an hour during this time. Shortly before the sauce is ready, I like to taste it to see whether it needs additional salt or pepper.
Whenever I make a big batch of bolognese, I usually freeze some of it, and it keeps well for up to three months.
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