BOLOGNESE RAGÙ

I usually make my ragù with veal stewing meat and one or two chicken livers but I came upon a recipe by Giuliano Hazan in Hazan Family Favorites which is made in the traditional way with chopped meat. Well, let me tell you, it was the most delicious Ragù alla Bolognese that I have ever made. The taste of the tomatoes united with ground beef (organic, mind you) was simply over the top - and you already know how much of a tomato mavin I am!

Before you make the ragù, which invariably ends up being used in lasagna, it's best to have a mise en place so that everything is at the ready because once you've started cooking this sauce, it all goes rather quickly as you add ingredients. N.B. you will see that the ratio from butter to oil is 4:1. Don't forget, even though Bologna isn't all that far north in the grand scheme of all things geographical, this is a Northern Italian recipe and they use far more butter than olive oil. It isn't for nothing that Bologna is called la Grassa (the "fat")!

Bolognese Ragù*

4 tbs. unsalted butter (half a stick cut up in pieces

1 tbs. olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped 

1 medium carrot, peels and cut into 1/4 inch dice

1 stalk celery, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch dice

1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped extremely finely

1 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped extremely finely

2 tsp. fresh Italian flat parsley chopped extremely finely

8-12 oz. ground beef (I prefer organic or I grind my own)

1/2 white wine

1/2 cup whole milk

1/8 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

2 cans San Marzano tomatoes** (peeled in the their juices) OR

2 cans Crushed tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter and oil in a large heavy bottomed dutch oven or saucepan. When butter and oil have stopped bubbling, add the onions and brown for a minute or two before adding the carrots and celery. Let them melt into each other and when the onions begin to become translucent, add the meat and break up with a spoon. Brown the meat until the meat has rendered all of its juice and continue to cook until about half of the liquid in the pan has evaporated. Evaporation in this recipe, as you will find, is an important step in achieving a dense "ragù."

Once most of the liquid has evaporated, add the white wine and boil that down until about half of that has evaporated. Add the milk and grate in the nutmeg and bring that back to the boil and let that evaporate until it begins to has a thick and creamy consistency.

Add the tomatoes and combine ingredients.  Bring to a boil and immediate turn the flame down to a simmer and continue to stir every so often. Simmer uncovered**, stirring occasionally for 3-1/2-4 hours. Salt and pepper to taste but use sparingly. Serve with whatever pasta you are going to use or reserve while preparing lasagna.

This sauce will keep for a week in the fridge if put into an airtight plastic container. It freezes very well for about a month. You can jar this sauce, and use throughout the year as I wrote about in making Passato di pomodoro, but I wouldn't do it. It's always better fresh.

* I want to mention here that Giuliano Hazan specifically mentions, and rightly so, that ragù, i.e. meat sauce, should never be used on spaghetti. This, indeed, is not the way Italians eat it. In fact, Italians never eat spaghetti or cappellini with meat sauce. The thinner noodles do not lend themselves well for the meat sauce to adhere to them well as do wider and more abundant shapes. Tagliatelle, fettuccini, and pappardelle, or any sort of macaroni, such as shells or farfalle or rigatoni, are far better suited for this sauce, besides Lasagna, of course.

** If you are using the canned peeled tomatoes, remove the tomatoes from the can and put them in a large bowl and crush them with your hands before pouring them, with the juice from the can, into the pot.

*** Because the sauce will become dense, you may have to cover it askew to prevent those big boiling geysers of lava-like sauce from splattering the ceiling and everything in between, but still allowing air to escape for the sauce to reduce gradually.