RECIPE
Makes 4 serves - Preparation time 1 hour - cooking time; 3 hours for the ragu' + 3 minutes to boil pasta
Ragu’ Bolognese:
5 T olive oil or butter, or a combination of both
1 small brown onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and finely chopped
400g beef mince
400g pork mince, or sausage
salt and black pepper, to taste
2 bay leaves
1 cup red or white wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
350g tomato puree (optional – the tomato is not the star in a real Ragu’ Bolognese, but I understand that most people - included me – prefer having more sauce in the ragu’)
1 cup water or meat/chicken stock
½ cup of milk, warm
Fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano, preferably aged for 24 months
Egg Dough
270g 00 flour + 30g semolina flour (or 300g all-purpose flour)
3 large eggs
Equipment nedeed: Pasta machine, wooden board, a pot to boil pasta and a saucepan to cook Ragu’.
Ragù Bolognese will come out extraordinarily well slowly cooked in terra cotta. If you have a terra cotta pot, this is the time to use it! The results will be sweeter and more luscious. If you don’t have a terra cotta pot, use an enameled Dutch-Oven.
MAKING THE RAGU' Heat a large saucepan until hot and add the olive oil or butter.
Add the onion, celery and carrot and cook over a medium heat until softened, about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the mince and cook until browned all over. Season with salt and pepper and bay leaves.
Pour in the wine, stir well and let it evaporate on a high flame. Make sure that you cook off all of the alcohol before moving on to the next step. You need to smell if the alcohol has evaporated and it should smell almost sweet once it has done so. Take your time with this step!
Add the tomato paste, stir well, then add tomato sauce - if using - and cook for 2 minutes.
Finally add the water or stock and bring to the boil. Cover and let it simmer away for at least two hours or until the meat is tender. Stir occasionally during cooking and taste and adjust the seasoning at the end.
A few minutes before turning the flame off add the warm milk and stir gently. The milk will make the meat more tender.
MAKING THE DOUGH While your ragu is cooking make the dough following my guide here
MAKING TAGLIATELLE
Place rolled dough onto a work surface dusted with flour, sprinkle with more flour to upper surface.
Adjust pasta machine to noodle setting. Working one dough segment at a time, feed dough through the pasta-cutter. Alternatively, cut folded dough by hand with a chef's knife to desired noodle width.
Divide the cut noodles into individual portions, dust lightly with flour, and curl into a nest. Place on a wooden board and gently cover with kitchen towel until ready to cook.
COOKING TAGLIATELLE
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook tagliatelle until tender, about 3 minutes.
Toss with sauce, sprinkle with Parmigiano Reggiano and serve.
You can also serve Ragu' Bolognese on short kinds of pasta that will catch the sauce well, like farfalle, garganelli, penne rigate, rigatoni, cavatelli and gnocchi. Sorry but spag bol is not a thing…
If you want to learn more about Ragu' Bolognese I suggest you to read this interesting post:
Hope you enjoy this recipe! If you make it, please let me know your thoughts and tag me on my Fb page Pasta Journey or my Instagram _pastajourney_ . I would love to hear from you!
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