Many, many years ago, I lived dangerously close to a Pier 1 Imports
with a roommate who firmly believed in retail therapy. This was a time when
Pier 1 had a clothing section chock-full of cool quirky finds and a somewhat
less-curated overall selection, so you could browse the corners and find all
kinds of fun stuff on the cheap. I still own a surprising number of those items
(though not, alas, the clothing), including a cookbook called The Top One
Hundred Pasta Sauces.
This book was an absolute revelation to me. I was just
starting to really explore food, and I had no idea that you could make
something other than tomato sauce or cream sauce for pasta. Fettucine instead
of spaghetti was comparatively wild. And recipes using metric – holy cow, I
might as well be in Italy already. I felt exotic and worldly just reading it.
Someday I’d like to cook my way through this entire book.
But since today is not that day, I’m going to settle for being grateful that
Trader Joe’s is currently carrying fresh gluten-free pasta and that David has
eased up a bit lately on his moratorium on dairy and nightshades. Clearly, Bolognese
is called for.
Even the most cursory glance at the internet makes it clear
that people take their Bolognese pretty damn seriously. “The ONLY authentic Bolognese!”
“Make REAL Bolognese” “The Authentic Bolognese your Nonna used to make” “Yo mama
makes Prince spaghetti” etc etc. There’s even an official version registered
with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce. While even the most adamant stickler for
tradition will admit that the sauce can have minor variations and still be
considered authentic, there are a few common factors: meat dominates, with only
a small amount of tomato concentrate; there are no herbs or garlic; the sauce
starts with a sofrito of onion, celery, and carrot; and seasoning is limited to
salt, pepper, and the occasional pinch of nutmeg. Cream is almost always added
at the end. It cooks for hours and it tastes like love.
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Whose sauce is the best?!?! |
You might be wondering what could possibly compel me to
spend that much time at the stove at the tail end of a 90-degree day. (I myself
am wondering this right now, but I’m cranky and tired and hungry.) Anna and I
went out to brunch recently and she ordered pasta Bolognese, which was good but
not amazing and made me want to one-up them. She’s had a rough couple of weeks,
and I thought that making one of her favorites from scratch would go a long way
towards making her feel loved. We couldn’t decide what kind of carryout we
wanted to get instead. Even though we spend a solid 6 hours doing heavy-duty
yard work, I’d already bought the ingredients and it mostly tends itself on the
stove and I could use the food processor for the veggies so it’s really not a
lot of hands-on work…. And, mostly, BECAUSE I CAN. Because I can spend 2 ½ (yes,
largely unattended) hours making this amazing, unctuous, luscious sauce and
everybody in the house will eat it.
Note to self: A sauce this good deserves a really good
bottle of wine. Properly I should be drinking Barolo or Barbaresco or Barbera
or even Lambrusco. And if we had company I probably would, but instead I’m
tackling a bottle of Chianti Classico from Trader Joe’s, because that seems
like the kind of thing that you can sip on the deck admiring the results of
your day’s labors without overthinking it. Also I’m trying to develop an
appreciation for good-enough wines at a weeknight-friendly price point; while I
don’t consider myself a wine snob by any stretch of the imagination (yes, it’s
OK to only drink things you actually like), my wine rack is currently full of bottles
I’d like to save for an occasion, which makes it harder to find something for a
casual night in.
Taken from The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces by Diane Seed, with some editorial comments added.
Tell Your Nonna It’s Not As Good As Hers: Bolognese Means Love
5 oz lean boneless pork (cheat and buy pre-ground if you
have a good meat counter)
5 oz lean boneless beef (same)
2 Tbsp olive oil
6 Tbsp butter
1 medium onion, minced
1 carrot, minced
1 stalk celery, minced
4 oz bacon, finely chopped
2 oz fresh Italian sausage (this is about 1 link from the
meat counter)
1 wineglass white wine (technically a standard restaurant
pour is 5-6 oz. Use your judgement. Or lack thereof.)
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 wineglass stock
Salt and black pepper
5 Tbsp heavy cream (don’t skip this)(I mean it. Don’t skip
this. If you can’t wrap your head around it, you’re thinking of Neapolitan ragu
and it’s completely different and someone’s Nonna will knife you over it)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
If you didn’t buy pre-ground meat, mince it in a food
processor. Heat the oil and 4 Tbsp butter in a pan, then add the minced onion,
carrot, celery, and bacon. Cook gently for about 10 minutes.
Add the ground pork, beef, sausage, and wine. Cook gently
for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure the meat is broken
up. Add the tomato paste, diluted in the stock. Season to taste with salt and
pepper and cook for 1 ½ hours.
Stir in the cream until is has been absorbed by the sauce,
then set aside. Cook FRESH pasta according to package directions.
Return the sauce to the heat for a moment and add the remaining
butter. Turn the pasta into a serving dish, make a well in the center, stir the
sauce well, and pour it into the middle of the pasta. Set the bowl on the table
in front of your admiring family/friends/guests and serve freshly grated Parmesan
on the side.
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