Pasta Bolognese

A tasty sauce ultra known throughout the world… Bolognese sauce is actually a bit more complex than it looks. In Italy, it’s more like a meat ragout served over pasta (usually tagliatelle, not spaghetti, or in lasagna) with lots of ingredients simmering for hours. The more it cooks, the better it is… Mine baked for almost 7 hours with an overnight rest. I’ve been to Bologna twice in my life, but at the time I didn’t have the idea for this blog. But there, everyone has the best recipe in town and each cook has her own little secret that makes her unique. There are not necessarily that many tomatoes in this sauce. But above all other things that are often forgotten outside Bologna, such as red wine, celery, pancetta, porcini mushrooms too… Nothing difficult, the most time consuming part being the gentle cooking that gives this dish its full flavor. I give you here the most traditional recipe, you can of course adapt it to your taste!

Recipe for Bolognese sauce:

-1 large carrot or 2 not too large

-1 onion

-2 cloves of garlic

-2 small stalks of celery

-2 tablespoons of olive oil

-30g of butter

-700g of ground beef

-200g of poultry livers

-200ml of red wine

-150ml of milk

-20g dried porcini mushrooms (optional)

-700ml of meat broth

-150g of pancetta (or finely chopped bacon)

-180g of double tomato paste

-2 teaspoons of sugar

a few leaves of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

-salt pepper

To serve: tagliatelle and fresh parmesan

Prepare your vegetables…

Finely chop the garlic cloves.

Cut the onion into small pieces. Put the olive oil, garlic and onion in a large pot.

Finely chop the celery stalks.

Then chop them up.

Place in the pan over low heat and stir.

Thinly slice the carrot first…

Then the slices in sticks and finally in small cubes.

Pour everything into the pan.

Add the butter and let simmer without necessarily coloring.

This time, it’s time to add the meat. Mix well to separate any clumps that may form.

Pour in the red wine.

The double tomato paste (on the picture, there is not much, but I added a lot later, and the quantity in the recipe, corresponds to what I put).

Pour in the broth. At this point, the whole thing seems to be very liquid. This is quite normal…

A little sugar to sweeten the sauce (2 teaspoons).

And the milk. Let it simmer…

Meanwhile, let the dried porcini mushrooms swell in hot water for 20 minutes. Keep the cep juice!

Then cut them into pieces and finely chop them.

Add the ceps to the sauce, they will cook in it! Pour some of the porcini juice you have saved… Anyway, the sauce will cook for a very long time and even if it seems very liquid, it will be cooked until it has the perfect consistency.

Not very glamorous in pictures, but let’s chop up some chicken livers… You can do without it, but it makes the “ragu” even smoother.

To put them in the sauce which continues to cook.

A little parsley.

And finally the pancetta. It can be replaced by lardons.

Cut it into small pieces/

A little tap in a hot pan to toast them lightlyL

And hop in the sauce!

Simmer for 5-6 hours on low heat. Put salt and pepper at your taste.

If the sauce becomes too thick, simply add a little water. What I do: I let it cook for 5 to 6 hours, then turn off the heat and let it sit overnight. The next day (because sauces are always better the next day…) I add a little water and let it cook slowly again until I have the perfect consistency!

Of course, serve the sauce over “al dente” pasta with some freshly grated parmesan! In Bologna, this sauce is served on tagliatelle rather than spaghetti or in lasagna! A delight….