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Bolognese sauce

Notes from Marcella
  • The meat should not be from too lean a cut; the more marbled it is, the sweeter the sauce will be. The neck portion of the chuck works well.
  • Add salt immediately when sauteing the meat to extract its juices for the subsequent benefit of the sauce.
  • Cook the meat in milk before adding wine and tomatoes to protect it from the acidic bite of the latter.
  • Do not use a demiglace or other concentrates that tip the balance of flavors toward harshness.
  • Use a pot that retains heat. Earthenware is preferred in Bologna and bot most cooks in Emilia-Romagna, but enameled cast-iron pans or a pot whose heavy bottom is composed of layers of steel allows are fully satisfactory.
  • Cook, uncovered, at the merest simmer for a long, long time; no less than 3 hours is necessary. More is better.
  • 15 g Vegetable Oil
  • 40 g Unsalted Butter
  • 110 g Onion, chopped
  • 110 g Celery, chopped
  • 110 g Carrot, chopped
  • 330 g Ground Beef
  • 1 t Medium-Grain Salt
  • 1/2 t Black Peppercorn, ground
  • 240 g Whole Milk
  • 1 pinch Nutmeg
  • 240 g Dry White Wine
  • 360 g Tomatoes, peeled, crushed
  1. Sweat vegetables. Cook onion in butter and oil over medium heat until translucent. Stir in celery, carrot. Cook 2 minutes.
  2. Brown beef. Stir in beef, salt, black pepper. Cook until beef has lost its raw, red color.
  3. Build sauce. Stir in milk. Reduce 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in wine. Reduce 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes. Simmer until sauce begins to bubble. Reduce heat to a very low simmer.
  4. Simmer, uncovered, 3-6 hours, stirring as needed.

Be very careful not to burn the milk solids.

If the sauce begins to dry out and stick, add 100 g Water.

At the end, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce.

Serve with fettuccine, rigatoni, conchiglie, or fusilli.

  1. Hazan, Marcella, and Karin Kretschmann. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. ↩