Marcella Hazan's Bolognese Sauce
Every time I make bolognese, I make some obscure version of this sauce from memory. Sometimes using more wine than it calls for or heavy cream instead of milk, it's whatever I have on hand really. I figured it best to get some version of what I use out there. Feel free to doctor it as you like but this recipe featured in the New York Times is pretty perfect if you are unseasoned and follow it word for word and ingredient for ingredient. There's a moroccan lamb version my friend Erika and I made once, she never writes anything down so it's become virtually impossible to replicate but I'm working on it and when I do, everyone will know about it.
Marcella Hazan's Bolognese Sauce
(double to serve 6)
ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta
½ cup finely chopped onion
⅔ cup finely chopped celery
⅔ cup finely chopped carrot
¾ pound ground beef chuck (or you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts beef)
Kosher Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup whole milk (or half and half or cream, whatever you have on hand)
Whole nutmeg for grating
1 cup dry white wine (Alternatively I ALWAYS USE RED)
1 ½ cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, finely chopped, with their juice
1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds pasta (Spaghetti or pasta rings that look like calamari or large rigatoni for catching all the sauce)
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese at the table
Heat oil and butter in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat them well.
Add 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 raw, red color.
Add milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating -- about 1/8 teaspoon -- of nutmeg, and stir.
Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that 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, stirring from time to time.
While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add 1/2 cup of water or stock 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.