Ragù alla Bolognese cook-a-long

The pancetta is coming along nicely. I want to accomplish 3 things:
-render out some excess fats
-brown the pancetta just enough to give some additional flavor without drying it out
-create a bit of a fond on the bottom of the pan to deglaze with the soffrito

The pancetta is about done.

Here I've drained off excess fats and am about to add the soffrito.

There's a nice little bit of fond on the bottom of the pan for the soffrito to pick up.

This is how much excess fat I drained from the pancetta.

Now for the soffrito.

STOP DRAINING FAT

There's still enough fat to cook the soffrito AND render some more from the pancetta, user.

Great thread OP, finally some oc. I use the same recipe you posted, with slightly diff meat:vege ratios. Occasionally add liver, too. Have you tried using a wee bit of fish sauce in the end? Stole that from seriouseats :)

>a wee bit of fish sauce

Thanks user. I'm down with the fish sauce, but I won't be adding it to this recipe, as I'm trying to stay as close to the published recipe as possible.

>when your culture is so frail you have to get the government to preserve food

social darwinism is a great

The soffrito is done, and there's a nice little bit of fond on the bottom of the pan the beef will pull up as it browns.

Time to mix in the beef and crank up the heat.

I'm going to want to brown this enough to get another layer of fond on the bottom of the pan.

I wonder why you brown the beef after the soffrito. Seems to me it would make more sense to brown the beef right after the pancetta, then do the soffrito. What am I missing in my thought process?

>What am I missing in my thought process?

Nothing.

I think the way to go is to always use the fats from your proteins to sweat your veggies, and using bacon or pork fats to brown beef is always win IMO. However, my intent is to try and follow the "official" recipe as much as possible, and this is the order they prescribe.

The beef's about done. When I push the beef aside, you can still see there's plenty of moisture and fats remaining.

Notice that the only remaining part of the soffrito that's still visible is the carrot, which makes me think I should have chopped them even finer. Maybe I'll use grated carrot next time to help it blend in.

It's impossible to fully dissolve the mirepoix. Besides, if you grate the carrots too finely, then the sauce will end up having a strong orange-y colour.

>sauce will end up having a strong orange-y colour.

Not that there's anything wrong with that....

Italians never had a centralized aristocracy to create the infrastructure for culinary traditions like the French did. Their food has always been variable and any "traditions" people claim to have are basically just passed down one or two generations before someone changes them.

In goes the wine.

There was a little fond on the bottom I'll be able to pull up, but this is the last step I'm doing in the cast iron. Once the wine is reduced, I'm transferring to my thin ass shitty stainless stock pot for the tomato add and simmer phase.

I've never cooked anything with a lot of acid, like tomatoes, for a long time in my cast iron, but I've read that it can impart off flavors that I want to avoid. Never have any problems doing wine reductions, though.

Wow! Someone on this board is actually cooking something, and trying to do a good job instead of talking about fast food? AMAZING.

I know, crazy, right?

The wine's cooked out now. I put the passata in my stock pot and have it on a low heat, so now it's time to add the rest.

Into the passata.

Everything is mixed in now, so all that's left is just to let it simmer. I'll add some beef broth to top it up if it looks like it's getting dried out, and I'll add the milk a little at a time starting after the first hour of simmer time.

Been about an hour on the simmer and this is what it looks like.

Time to hit it with some beef stock.

The beef stock's been added and stirred in, and I'm going to start adding the milk in about 15 mins or so.

Time to add some milk.

Top pic: after about 1/2 cup of milk has been added

bottom pic: stirred in

Back to the simmer it goes.

About 2 hours now, and you could serve it as is, or leave it on the simmer, which is what I'm going to do.

Taste test results in a very "beefy" flavor, and you can taste the impact the milk has as it imparts a creamier flavor and reduces the normal acidic taste in tomato sauces.

Adding some more milk and fresh ground black pepper.

So soffrito is just like mirpoix?

Wa La!

Yup, same shit, user.

3 hour mark.

Taste test results in a very rich, beefy sauce. No need for salt, but added just a touch more pepper, and a little more milk. I'm going to let this simmer for another hour before I dig in.

Looks tasty lad, hope it's delicious

Time to make the pasta.

Fettucine complete.

Alright, we're about at the 4 hour mark, and I'm calling it done.

My plating skills are ass, but here it is with a bit of basil and some grated cheese.

Very rich, beefy, and with a creamy texture, and tastes pretty much just like the ragu I had in a lot of trattoria's when I lived in Italy. Bolognese is a fairly simple sauce to make, and I'd recommend giving it a try sticking to the recipe without adding a bunch of the usual shit we normally do.

I'm going to freeze half of this sauce, and I'll probably make a lasagna with the rest. Maybe I'll do another cook-a-long when I do.

nice

Good shit OP. Looks delicious.

I like doing it with a bit of ground lamb in there. Gives it a bit "meatier" of a flavor. I've seen variations that use purred liver as well to get more depth in the flavor.

Very nice OP

Thanks, anons.

The next batch I make is going to have a chicken liver in it to see how that impacts the flavor. I've read quite a few recipes that call for it. I'm also going to toss in garlic and some fish sauce.

I think the Bolognese recipe, like most Italian recipes, are a bit too plain for most people these days, which is why so many people add shit to them, like garlic, basil, rosemary, oregano, hot peppers, and such. I think a lot of Italian "traditional" recipes were developed from poverty, where they just didn't have the cash, or the access to the kind of ingredients most people can find today.

Regardless, Bolognese is still a wonderful meat sauce that people should at least try.

Fantastic thread OP, really enjoyed reading. When you make the pasta, how long does it take to dry?

>without adding a bunch of the usual shit we normally do
I never add any "weird shit" to ragù bolognese other than nutmeg, dried porcini mushrooms, and bay leaves

Ragù was not originally a poor people recipe. Back in the old days, poor Italian people ate plenty of bread and vegetables. Ragù was invented by a cook who worked for the Cardinal of Imola (a town near Bologna).
The reason why people (mostly in America, but also in the UK, 'Straya, and other parts of the world) put stuff like garlic, oregano, basil, and peperoncini into ragù is because they don't think of it as anything else other than just a ground beef and tomato sauce to dress pasta with. They don't think of the flavors provided by the mirepoix or milk. They think it's just yet another cooked dish that you can put Italian seasoning in ("It's got the word 'Italian' in its name, so I should be able to put it on any Italian dishes, shouldn't I?"). They wouldn't really bother themselves to look up old recipe books about Italian cooking or anything of that sort. They just wanna eat noodles with red sauce.

>how long does it take to dry?

To make it less likely to stick, it takes about 10-15 minutes, which is why I hung it on that pot. You really don't need to dry it at all, though, and can toss it right into boiling water as soon as you've cut it with your machine, or a knife, but I wanted to have it ready when the sauce was done, so made it early and let it dry until it was time to cook them.

I don't agree with that at all.

Herbs and spices compliment the basic ragu, and most people will try to improve on a recipe whenever they can.

Look at bread. Sure, plain bread is alright, but it's a hell of a lot better with some butter, or olive oil, or pasta sauce on it...

I always thought the tomatoes were supposed to be chunky. Gonna try this next time

Looks good, I saved the recipe to my recipe folder but this recipe takes far too long to cook in general and seeing as I work + study I can't wait 3 hours to eat.

There's nothing wrong with standard bolognese

>takes far too long to cook

Just cook a big ol' pot on an off day and freeze it in portions. It keeps very well, and actually gets better with some time.

> takes far too long
You can cook it while studying. There's only about 20 minutes of active cooking and then a few hours of simmering and occasionally stirring.

Then you've got meals for the whole week waiting for you in the fridge.

>Then you've got meals for the whole week waiting for you in the fridge.

This.

You should be making huge pots of soups, chili, ragu, jambalaya, and freezing them in individual portions so you can come home from work, pop that shit in the microwave, and have a home cooked hot meal ready in minutes.

>about the only thing Italians agree on when it comes to this sauce is that everybody else is doing it wrong
if even they can't agree on how to do it right, I don't think they get a say in the matter of everyone else doing it wrong

True.

But that won't stop them...

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