Marcella Hazan's Bolognese Meat Sauce

A long time ago (back in 2004), I posted about Hazan's Bolognese Meat Sauce... but I did not post the recipe. Then back in July this past year, "jeex" asked if I would finally post the recipe.

So tonight, with some ground beef that needed to be used (or lost), I put a pot of bolognese on the stove to serve as dinner for later this week. It's perfect for cold winter nights. I like to make double batches and freeze some to have later as a fast dinner.

Okay, I can be slow, but I get there eventually...  Here it is, from one of my favorite Italian chefs! (click the "continue" link)

Bolognese Meat Sauce
Marcella Hazan from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

1 Tbs vegetable oil (I use olive oil)
3 Tbs butter plus 1 Tbs for tossing the pasta
1/2 C. chopped onion
2/3 C. chopped celery (do NOT leave this out, even if you dislike celery; it's been tried with bad results)
2/3 C. chopped carrot
3/4 pound ground beef chuck
1 C. whole milk
1/8 tsp. grated nutmeg
1 C. dry white wine
1 1/2 C canned Italian plum tomatoes, cut in with their juice
salt
pepper
freshly graded parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Pasta of choice: tagliatelle, but works equally well with rigatoni, fusilli, and conchiglie

1. Put oil and butter in a pot with chopped onion. Turn heat on to medium. Cook and stir onion until translucent. Add chopped celery and carrot. Cook for 2 minutes more, stirring the vegetables to coat them well.

2. Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper. Break up the meat and stir well, cooking until the beef has lost its raw, red color.

3. Add the milk and let simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. This can take a while. Add the 1/8 tsp of grated nutmeg and stir.

4. Add the wine and let simmer until it has evaporated. This can take a while. Add tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest simmer with ocassional bubbles breaking. Cook uncovered for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. If the sauce begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat, add 1/2 C of water to keep it from sticking to the pot. At the end, however, no water should remain and the fat must be separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.

5. To serve: toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the final tablespoon of butter. Serve with the parmesan on the side. Hazan uses 1 1/4 lb of fresh pasta. I just cook what I think is enough for the meal and let people mix their own.

If you're going to freeze the sauce, don't toss it with pasta. When you do serve it, reheat it and simmer for 15 minutes before adding pasta.

Hazan says you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts beef for a tastier sauce, but I haven't tried that yet. She also says don't use too lean of a meat cut. The more marbled, the sweeter the ragu.

Comments

[Culinspiration]

This is exactly how I make it (ok, I omit the butter), and it is delicious. I once made it without celery (I was in Turkey, where it is not very common), and it was decent but, as you say, not as good. Also, a bit of tomato paste really ramps up the flavor (and is a component of the "official" registered Bolognese recipe).

The real trick, I think, is dicing the vegetables extremely small so that they melt away into the sauce. It also helps to sweat them for a good while before adding the meat. Crunchy veggies just *ruin* the effect.

[carly plume]

WOW! Maybe this really IS the way this recipe reads in "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking," but it is WAY different (and SO much better) in Marcella Hazan's "The Classic Italian Cookbook." Just a few key differences: 2 TABLESPOONS each of the chopped onion, carrot and celery. And most important of all: You add and cook down the wine BEFORE doing the same with the milk. (This is really key to the meat being optimally tender.)

I was too lazy to get out my cookbook and foolishly followed the recipe above before realizing the differences... result was WAY worse than my usual. Can't really believe Marcella changed it so much from one cookbook to another, but "The Classic Italian Cookbook" recipe rules.

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's husband]

Got me. We've been making it this way for years, and we like it. Different tastes, I guess!

[Ejr1Ejr]

I follow the same recipe, but I use a 1/2 pound of ground chuck and 1/4 pound ground pork. The latter takes this bolognese from delicious to incredible (perhaps even epic).

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's husband]

Apparently this dish is controversial even in Italy. The UK version of it, referenced in the article, is a travesty, but the official recipe is similar to what we've got above:

MARIO CARAMELLA'S TRADITIONAL BOLOGNESE RAGÙ

To achieve a great result, this sauce should be made fresh every morning and served within a few hours.

INGREDIENTS

Makes approx 4.4lb

* 600g coarsely ground lean beef
* 400g coarsely ground lean pork
* 200g pancetta diced or chopped
* 100g chopped onion
* 100g carrot diced
* 100g celery diced
* 1kg tomato peeled (canned)
* 300ml dry white wine
* 500ml fresh milk
* 3 bay leaves
* Black pepper and salt to taste

METHOD

Cook the pancetta in a large stainless steel saucepan over a low flame until the fat is melted. Add the onion and stir until the onion is translucent.

Add the carrot, celery and bay leaves and cook until the vegetables start to soften.

Raise the flame to very high and add the ground meats, which should have been mixed and seasoned with salt and black pepper.

Stir until the meat is well-cooked.

Add the white wine and continue to cook on a high heat until all the liquid has evaporated.

Briefly pulse the peeled tomatoes in a food processor and add to the pot.

Continue cooking over a low flame for at least two hours. If it starts to look a little dry, add some beef stock.

Add some milk little-by-little, stirring and cooking over a low heat for a further hour.

Season to taste and leave to rest before serving with tagliatelle.

Article Here

[joe]

I love this ragu and I've got the belly to prove it.

[Jo Cunningham]

I strongly agree with Carly Plume - a couple of years after her post. The wine first, cooked down, and then the milk. I see Maria Caramella's recipe uses that order too. I've never added pork, but should try that one of these days. I agree with the two tablespoons comment - I follow the Classic Italian Cook Book too. (I had it originally as two small paperbacks, then bought a later edition where it was compounded into one book.)

This ragu comes out to be a velvety meat sauce.

I can imagine I'd still like the ragu if I added a good pancetta (hard to get in my city) and a bit of tomato paste... but I fear fooling around with a very good sauce.

[tinica]

I've been making this for 25 years, following Marcella to the word. I have traveled by ferry from an island to the mainland to find celery because it IS that essential, as is cooking the meat in the milk BEFORE the wine. Sometimes I squirt a little tomato paste from a tube towards the end, but it simply *must* simmer for 3 hours. If you don't have time to make it properly, stop after adding the tomatoes and finish the next day.

I might be the odd one out with mile before the wine, but I learned from Hazan herself in Bologna.

[Michael Harris]

I followed Chick's recipe to the letter and ended up with a tasteless result, and lots of it, as I thought since it took so long to evaporate the milk and wine, and then an additional 3 hours cook time, it would save time in the long run to double the recipe, and freeze some. I suspect flavor was lost, not enhanced, by the lengthy simmering. There are other Bolognese recipes around that don't require all that simmering, include different ingredients, and hopefully provide a more flavorful result.