Like most Americans, I was raised on a bright red, tomatoey, sweet, highly-seasoned spaghetti sauce. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I always liked it and I still like it.
However, about a year ago, we had REAL ragu Bolognese (meat sauce) at a great Italian restaurant – “Pane e Vino” in San Francisco. It’s nothing like our American counterpart. Ragu Bolognese tastes mostly of meat, slightly of tomato, and little else. Sound boring? Well, it’s not; it’s more like the comfort food of the gods.
I tried duplicating this recipe at home, and got some good results, but nothing tasted like as good as the ragu at the restaurant. Then Mario Batali, in an episode of his series that I love, “Mario Eats Italy,” went to the town hall in Bologna and found a recipe posted on the building’s wall which is the “official ragu Bolognese” recipe, according to the City of Bologna. Last night I made this recipe, and voila – as good as the restaurant if not better. Thanks, Mario!
If anyone wants that recipe, I can post it or you can find it at foodtv.com. A quick summing up is: finely chopped vegies, finely chopped three kinds of meat, olive oil, butter, dry wine, milk, tomato paste. That’s it! No garlic, no herbs, no mushrooms, nada. The final sauce is brownish rather than red. And you’ve got to taste it to believe it.
Break out the Chianti. I think we’ll have the leftovers tonight.
Here’s the ingredients list, straight from the horse’s mouth:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup butter
1 cup onions, chopped VERY small
1/2 cup celery, chopped VERY small
1/4 cup carrots, chopped VERY small
1/4 pound pancetta, ground (you can ask your butcher to do this or chop it by hand)
1 pound ground veal
1/2 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 cups whole milk
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup tomato paste
Proceed the way you have always made your own meat sauce recipe. I did alter it a bit by lessening the amount of milk. Remember, this will not be a tomato-ey sauce; it will be brown and meaty. Serve on fettucine or tagliatelle with lots of finely grated real parmesan.
Chris, I called up your great recipe thread, but it has gotten so massive I’m positively afraid of it. I think it has acquired the mass of a black hole and will pull me in so that I’ll never come out. In a spirit of self-preservation, I’ll post this here in Cafe Society.
And, pardon me if this is heresy, but do you really NEED botht the butter and olive oil, considering the fat that comes off the meat. Should you drain the meat after browning? (I don’t usually, with meat sauce, but I saute my onions in maybe 1 tbsp fat and I’ve never used that much meat either).
It sounds yummy. I don’t want to mess it up and have it be all goopy and oily.
Hello Again, I’d say this recipe would feed 4-6 people, depending on how hungry they are and how much leftovers you want.
I also used to be sparing of the fat in my meat sauce recipes, but in this recipe, yes, go ahead and use all the fat and don’t drain the meat. Yes, I know, cholesterol city, but this is the way they make it in Bologna. I do, however, use the leanest meats that I can.
I have a trick when making the sauce: I use a potato masher towards the end to really break up the meats until they are quite fine, and then give the sauce a vigorous stir. I saw no fat in evidence floating on top of the sauce, nor did I feel stuffy after eating it.
I’ve made some of Mario’s stuff before, and it’s wonderful. But I always have to reduce the size of the recipes - seems like he’s always cooking for 12!