Pasta Bolognese

Bev has been on a pasta kick lately, which is fine with me, and had stated that she wants Bolognese for the next time, which was also fine with me.  I’ve been trying to make Sunday our pasta day and I just happened to have saved Tricia’s recipe for “Rigatoni Bolognese” from her “Saving Room For Dessert” blog.  It had to be tried when she described it as “An Italian classic sauce that's rich, thick with a complex flavor you won't soon forget. While it takes a little time to make it right, the directions are simple and easy to follow.”  This is a shot of Tricia’s.

Although this is not a classic Bolognese, like Anne Burrell’s that we’ve made in the past, because it uses a significant amount of tomatoes in addition to a little tomato paste, I still wanted to try it for comparison.  And so I didn’t have to risk hearing from Bev that “I like mine with more sauce,” I increased the ingredients by 50% to get the recipe below.  The original recipe and more pics can be found by clicking on the above link.

Pasta Bolognese – Adapted from Saving Room For Dessert

The Ingredients:

1½ tablespoon vegetable oil

4½ tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup minced or grated onion (See note below)

½ cup grated carrot

½ cup minced celery

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 pound lean ground beef

½ pound ground pork (I used Italian sausage)

¾ teaspoon salt

1½ cup whole milk (we were out, so I used a cup of half & half)

1½ cup dry white wine

44 ounces whole tomatoes chopped fine (reserve juice)

dash nutmeg (I’m not a fan)

1½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

For serving:

1 pound rigatoni (all we had was colored rotini)

fresh grated Parmesan cheese

fresh parsley leaves chopped (I forgot as usual)

Note: for the veggies, I chopped a half cup of each, then added them all to the food processor to mince.

The Instructions:

1. Heat the butter and vegetable oil in a large heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and sauté until soft but not brown. Add the tomato paste and stir until all the vegetables are coated and the paste darkens in color, about 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Next add the ground meat and season with salt. Crumble the meat as it cooks breaking it apart into tiny pieces. Cook and crumble the meat until no longer pink but not browned.

3. My addition – Tilt the pan, push the meat to the high side and spoon out most of the grease.

4. Pour in the milk and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the milk evaporates and only clear fat remains, about 15 minutes. (Make a well in the middle of the meat to easily see the liquid – or all liquid is gone when the steam stops).

5. Add the wine and reduce the heat to medium low. Bring to a low simmer. Continue cooking and smashing the beef with a wooden spoon until the wine evaporates and the surface of the pot is almost dry, about 15 minutes. The beef should be finely ground and reduced to little bits.

6. Add the tomatoes with juice, nutmeg and pepper and bring to simmer. 

7. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting so the sauce barely simmers with an occasional bubble or two at the surface until all liquid has evaporated, about 3 hours. It should look like a sloppy Joe mixture.

8. Check the seasoning and add salt if needed.

9. When the sauce is about done, cook pasta to desired doneness, drain, return to pan and mix in the sauce.

We plated and topped with fresh grated Parmesan.

And to kick it up another notch, we sided it with a slice of buttered, warm-from-the oven, homemade bread.

The Verdict:

We all thought the sauce was delicious and after looking at the pasta and sauce mixture in the pan, Bev decided she didn’t need any extra sauce on hers – we had a little pasta with our bolognese.  While I can’t compare this to a classic Bolognese, I can’t imagine the other version being any better and I would make this one again. 

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

06/12/22 event date