Spaghetti Bolognese

There has been a request for Bolognese.  This superb recipe comes from Marcella Hazan's The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and creates something very special from everyday ingredients through clever - essential indeed - technique.  The final mashing process is my only addition.  It means you don't have to chop the veg so fine at the start.

Many Bolognese recipes call for red wine, beef stock, browning the mince etc., which creates a richness that I can see is probably to British tastes.  This on the other hand is lighter and altogther vastly refined and delicious.

Spaghetti Bolognese


350g beef mince.  Or 2/3rd beef mince and 1/3rd pork mince.
250g whole milk
250ml dry white wine
25g butter
2 tbsp veg oil
3 carrots peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, outer curve peeled, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
500g tinned Italian tomatoes, chopped up, with their juice
nutmeg

Sweat the onion in the oil and butter until translucent.  Add the carrot and celery and stir for 2 minutes.

Add the mince, salt to draw out the fat, and cook until it has lost its raw red colour.  Season with nutmeg then pour in the milk and simmer until most of the liquid has gone.  This protects the meat from the acid of the wine and tomatoes.

Pour in the wine and again simmer until most of the liquid is gone.  Then add the tomatoes, and once it is simmering nicely reduce the heat very low, and leave to cook uncovered for at least three hours (it's a Saturday afternoon recipe, not Friday night), preferably more, stirring every so often.  It's a good sign if the oil separates.  Mash with a potato masher after around 2 hours to improve the texture, but leaving time afterwards for the oil to separate again.  Season with pepper, taste for salt and stir well before serving.  It needs to be seasoned generously.


Serve with al dente linguine, spaghetti, spaghettini or fresh linguine, and grated parmesan.  It will mature in the fridge over several days.

This was a batch of triple the quantity above