Bolognese: Not Your Momma's Meat Sauce. Or Maybe it is?
This ain’t your momma’s meat sauce. Or, it might be if she’s from Bologna. This week we’re making Bolognese, Italy’s classic meat sauce, along with a homemade tagliatelle pasta. Let’s get started.
If you’ve got time on your hands and want to make a meat sauce that will leave your taste buds begging for more, this is it. Bolognese, which is the traditional meat sauce that hails from the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, is a dish that will bring you right back to your childhood - wooden spoon flashbacks and all.
Ingredients
Bolognese Ingredients
1 lb Beef Short Rib
1 lb Pork Belly
3-4 medium carrots
2 sticks celery
1 large white onion
5 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt and more to taste
1 teaspoon pepper
500 ml beef broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 bunch of thyme
1 bottle red wine
1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
75 ml whole milk
Learn How to Make Paste - Click Here.
Get all of the cool pasta attachments here: https://amzn.to/3k79JDo
How to make a Bolognese from Scratch at Home
Homemade Bolognese Recipe:
Ok, so first we’re gonna start with the most important part of any Bolognese recipe, the meat.
For my recipe we start by taking out one pound of beef short rib and one pound of pork belly. The fat in both of these cuts of meat is going to bring out some intense and delicious flavors when all is said and done.
First we start by cutting both the beef and pork into one inch cubes, where we’ll then put them in a baking sheet and place them in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes.
Why are we doing this? We’ll, in this show we don’t take shortcuts, and you guessed it, we’re gonna grind the meat. By freezing the meat it, it’s gonna make it easier to ensure that nothing gets stuck in the grinder during the process, and for that matter, make sure to place all of your grinder parts in the freezer the night before, if you can, for that same reason.
Once everything is cool, start taking the cubes of meat and pass them through the grinder with a bowl underneath to catch everything.
When that’s done, place the meat back into the fridge for later.
Next, onto the soffrito, which is just a fancy way to say sauteed carrots, onion, celery and garlic.
First, start by peeling and dicing 3 to 4 medium sized carrots, dicing up 2 sticks of celery, and chopping a large white onion, where we’ll then add each to a food processor and pulse until it’s chopped down pretty fine.
Lastly, add 5 cloves of peeled garlic and pulse until finely chopped.
Once everything is in its chopped form, set it aside and we’re ready to have some fun.
In a large pot over medium heat, add in 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and let it get hot.
Once the oil is hot, add in the soffritto and begin to stir.
After it’s started to cook down a little bit, add in 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper, stir and let it cook down for another 5 minutes or so until it starts to look like this.
Once it’s ready, add all of our meat into the pot, a little bit more extra virgin olive oil, and begin to stir the meat into the mixture, allowing it to cook until it’s all browned.
This should take another 5 to 8 minutes or so.
After it’s browned, add in 1 to 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, depending on your taste, and stir again.
Now here’s the best part, we get to add in almost an entire bottle of wine. For bolognese, I use a cabernet, because it brings out some robust flavors when everything is said and done.
Also, be sure to not pour the whole bottle in, so you can enjoy a glass while this bad boy is cooking.
Next, we’ll drop in our aromatics. In this case, I’m using some chopped fresh basil, and a whole bunch of thyme wrapped in twine so we can easily pull it out later.
Add in 500 milliliters of beef broth, two bay leaves, stir together and we’ll let it cook covered for about 2 hours on low heat.
Now onto the pasta - click here for the full pasta recipe.
After the bolognese sauce has cooked down to our desired consistency, we’ll first take out the bunch of time that we have on a string, and then grate in 1 cup of parmigiano reggiano, pour in 75 milliliters of whole milk and stir until the bolognese’s newly invited friends, coming late to the party in classic Italian fashion, get to know each other.
Let that cook down for another 30 to 45 minutes, this time lid off, and will be ready for the final stage.
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