Marco's Bolognese recipe
- 300g ground skirt steak
- 100g pancetta
- 1/2 onion
- 1/2 carrot
- 1 celery stalk
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 1 cup tomato purée (or diced tomatoes)
- EVOO
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Mince onion, carrot, and celery together.
- Mince pancetta with a mezzaluna or a large chef's knife.
- Place heavy-bottom pot (enamelware works best) on medium-high heat; wait until a drop of water “dances” on the bottom.
- Pour some EVOO in pan, followed by the minced pancetta.
- Once the pancetta's fat has rended, add the meat, broken in small chunks.
- Add ground pepper to taste.
- When the meat has browned, deglaze with white wine.
- Add tomato paste
- Add tomato purée
- Lower temperature to low.
- When the sauce starts bubbling, taste and adjust salt as needed
- Add milk gradually and mix.
- Place lid on pot. Cook for 2.5–3.5 hours or longer (stir occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick).
Once done, the sauce should be very thick—approximately the consistency (but not the colour!) of sour cream. When it's time to eat, cook some pasta al dente (the best choice is egg tagliatelle made with wheat from the Po region of Italy), drain, then mix the pasta and 4/5 of the sauce together in the pot where you cooked the pasta until well mixed and the sauce has dried up ever so slightly. Serve, pouring the reserved sauce on top of the pasta as a topping and abundant grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
The critical items are:
- You cannot cook this too long. If the sauce dries up too much, you can correct with a bit of hot water (not broth, because that will make everything saltier)
- Do not burn the vegetables. If they burn, your sauce will taste bitter.
- Do not over-brown the meat. If you do, it will turn tough.
- Do not substitute the pancetta with bacon. If you can't find pancetta, try a good prosciutto instead.
- You can't speed up the cooking time by rising the heat. My grandma used to start the sauce in the morning for dinner!
- Good tomatoes make a huge difference. My favourite is Passata Rustica from Cirio (or my own 'matoes in the summer).
- Same with good pasta. Pick a good brand, like De Cecco or Barilla, or a made-in-Italy artisan brand. Prefer pasta that has a rough surface (egg pasta is typically best), because it'll hang on to the sauce better.
- Do not just pour the sauce on top of the unseasoned pasta straight out of the pot. It won't mix well. Instead, drain the pasta well, mix sauce and pasta in the pot, then serve. Hint: if you end up with a pool of sauce in your dish once you're done eating the pasta, you did it wrong :-)
- Red wine makes a richer (but heavier) sauce.
- Ground skirt can be replaced with lean or extra-lean ground beef (extra-lean is best, as there is already plenty of fat in the pancetta).
- The original bolognese recipe does not have garlic. For extra flavour, drop a whole peeled clove in after step #9. Remember to take it out before serving, or someone's going to get a nasty surprise.
- You can replace the salt with a bit of bouillon powder for a fuller flavour.
(Recipe courtesy of my late grandmother Franca. Still the best ragù I've ever tasted.)
can i fork this?