Pasta with Bolognese Sauce
Summary
- Source: Essentials of Classic Italian
Cooking, Marcella Hazan
- Genre: Italian
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cooking Time: 4+ hours to all day
- Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp butter plus 1 tbsp for mixing the pasta
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 2/3 cup chopped celery
- 2/3 cup chopped carrot
- 3/4 lb ground beef chuck
- Salt
- Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 whole nutmeg
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1.5 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up,
with their juice
- 1.25-1.5 pounds rigatoni pasta
- Freshly-grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese at the
table
Directions:
- Put the oil, butter and chopped onion in a non-reactive
pot (meaning stainless steel or enamled cast iron). Set heat to
medium. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent
then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2
minutes, stirring the vegetables to coat them well.
- Add the ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few
grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well, and
cook until the beef has lost its red, raw color.
- Add the milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently,
until it has bubbled away completely (this will take longer than
you think). Add a tiny grating -- about 1/8 tsp -- of nutmeg, and
stir.
- Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated (again,
will take longer than you think) then add the tomatoes and stir
thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin
to bubble, turn the heat down so the sauce cooks at the laziest of
simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the
surface. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more (3 hours is the bare
minimum, more is always better; all day is ideal), stirring from
time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find it
begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it
from sticking, continue the cooking, adding 1/2 cup of water
whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be
left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct
for salt.
- Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of
butter, and serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side.
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