Bolognese sauce

[mickthecactus]

There has been a lot of discussion in another place about the above.

What is your recipe?

[tod2]

I make my sauce differently every time but do stick to a basic tomato sauce for the meat - then changing the herbs and spices for a different flavour. You can also use this sauce for spaghetti & meatballs.

SAUCE
Ingredients are;

1 onion - chopped
60ml olive oil
350ml tomato passata/puree or even canned tomato.
15ml red wine vinegar
5ml smoked paprika
2.5ml ground cinnamon or half a stick (have to remove it though)
2.5ml ground cloves
5ml sugar
salt & ground black pepper to taste
2 sprigs fresh rosemary stalk and all (remove stalk before serving)
3 cloves garlic chopped

To make sauce:

Saute onion in olive oil until soft then add garlic, paprika,cinnamon, cloves, salt & pepper, lastly the passata & red vinegar and sugar. Stir and throw in the rosemary. Cover & simmer gently adding a little water so the sauce does not become too dry stirring everytime you check.

Bolognese meat: Saute` in a little oil with oregano (fresh or dried) salt to taste. Let it catch on the bottom of the pan - not burn! and deglase with a little red wine or water - do this three times. Then add the tomatoe sauce.
Simmer very very gently for 2 hours - watch the liquid level carefully. Can be thickened with a little cornflour or similar for a thicker sauce.

[Deleted]

Certainly not authentic, but the "spaghetti sauce" that I grew up with. My mother would make quite a large amount and freeze a lot of it for future use, but the following would basically make enough sauce for at least two meals, even though I don't give quantities.

Ingredients:

Ground beef
Olive oil
Tin of peeled tomatoes or tomato pulp
Green pepper (capsicum), chopped
Large onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
Garlic, chopped
Tin of tomato paste
A few bay leaves
Salt, pepper…

Preparation:

Brown the ground beef and drain off the juice. Add the chopped vegetables and some olive oil and let the mixture cook a bit before adding the tin of tomatoes. Add bay leaves, salt and pepper, and let the mixture simmer, stirring from time to time. The tomato paste is used to "correct" the sauciness of the sauce as required.

I have read that one is supposed to hunt down the bay leaves and remove them before serving, but in my family we left them and and decided that it was good look for anybody to find one.

I have of course made this sort of sauce many times over the years, but I have become more inventive with the spices, usually to make it spicier -- Cayenne, curry or whatever (even chopped ginger) might find their way in to a certain extent.

My own belief is that pasta sauce offers unlimited possibilities for improvisation.

[Deleted]

I put carrots in my version.

[fumobici]

K2's recipe looks ballpark, I'd just add that to get a more authentic ragu' bolognese it is important to use finely chopped meat, more finely than is commonly available in the US. You might have to find an accommodating butcher to grind some for you or grind your own. It really changes the sauce fundamentally, it's worth a try at least once. All foodies should take a culinary tour of Emilia–Romagna at least once, I personally think it is the most refined Italian style and Bologna is IMO where it reaches its highest refinement. Bologna is also a very charming if somewhat funky place to visit, a university town with few pretensions or touristy compromises.

[mich64]

I am laughing right now because before logging on I was on the telephone with my mother and she was asking what we put in our Bolognese sauce (she had not made it in so long)

Kerouac your recipe must be "someones authentic" because it is the same as ours! Our mother's must have had the same cookbook all those years ago. I was surprised to see how your recipe is exactly like ours, down to the bay leaves, but my mother and I disagree on adding the tomato paste. I do not, mom does.

[hwinpp]

I'd follow K2, except I wouldn't add the bell peppers. Carrots would be fine.

[bixaorellana]

I also use carrots to sweeten tomato sauce at times.

I find your recipe really intriguing, Tod, with the sort of north African seasonings of cinnamon and clove. Putting in the sprig of rosemary is a nice touch. I want to try this!

This older thread doesn't have a single Bolognese recipe in it. However, I feel my Family Secret in #31 would benefit any tomato sauce including Bolognese.
anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=recipes&action=display&thread=3157&page=1

[tod2]

Yes Bixa, this recipe is a combination of African & Italian - Years ago my friend had an Italian boyfriend and he sure laid down the law when it came to tomato based spaghetti sauces ! His mother did this and his mother did that......He insisted on loads of garlic and loads of rosemary & oregano and then said the secret to a wonderful bolognese was cooking it long and slow.
I think this breaks down the meat - that's if you don't get it minced really fine. I don't. Just buy the regular minced meat.

[Deleted]

I have never used carrots in pasta sauce. And I still don't have any plans to do so.

[fumobici]

It appears there is an "official" recipe. I found an English translation here:

culinariaitalia.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/ragu-alla-bolognese-authentic-recipe/

Like most recipes, it's probably worth at least one try verbatim before one begins riffing on the theme.

[lagatta]

I have had the "real" bolognese, made by a ... Bolognese. It is very good, but barbarian that I am, I'd have added just a bit of garlic.

Kerouac, carrots, celery and onion sautéed or "blonded" together form a basis for many cooking sauces. You might want to sub mushrooms, if you don't like carrots in sauces. Note that the authentic sauce has very little tomato so the carrots wouldn't make it too sweet. Perhaps this sauce is indeed very ancient and pre-dates the introduction of tomatoes to Italian cuisine?

But indeed, Spag Bol and its variations are "authentic" dishes of other countries. Kerouac won't want to hear that I've been fed a veg version made with fake soya-based meat. Not as horrible as you might think.

[Deleted]

Since I never follow recipes anyway, it is highly unlikely that I will ever make authentic bolognese sauce, but it's no problem as far as I'm concerned. Whenever I see a recipe, I always incorporate new items and discard unwanted ones as I go.

However, I have had a few friends who slavishly follow every detail on a written recipe out of fear that any change is unpardonable.

[fumobici]

I'm of the school that one generally owes the recipe writer one slavish rendering of the recipe before going off in one's own direction, particularly if in unfamiliar culinary territory. Of course more often I just look at recipes to get general ideas about ingredients and preparation and incorporate those that sound good or conform to ingredients and/or cooking tools on hand or easily available. It's rare that I'll make a dish strictly to a recipe more than once however.

[bixaorellana]

I agree with you, Fumobici. It's not so much out of respect for the recipe writer, however. Rather, if the recipe is supposedly the True Version, you might as well follow it to the letter one time in order to compare the results to your memory of the dish, and/or your preferences, etc.

I would have to sample the ur-version of Ragu alla Bolognese and be thrilled before I'd even consider making the ragu as set forth in #10, which so far is not ringing my bell.

[lagatta]

I've had it - it is very good, but very restrained.

One benefit of making recipes by the book at least once is that it broadens our palate and use of ingredients. I can cook most things without a recipe, but sometimes we always fall back on our pet ingredients and food starts to taste a bit the same.

fumobici, we had a friend (who has died) who was a very creative cook but he loved doing elaborate menus by the book. Always the treat. If there was one dish we may not have cared for, there was always something else.

[Deleted]

I'm all for new ingredients, but if a recipe calls for, say, half a cup of brown sugar, I am going to look for something else.

[hwinpp]

I believe to have authentic salsa di Bologna con spaghetti[/i], you need to eat it in Bologna... (ok, I'll shut up now )

[Don Cuevas]

When I lived in The South, I tried Barbecued Bologna, but didn't like it as well as BBQ ribs or pulled pork. ;D

[Deleted]

That would be similar to barbecued Spam.

[tod2]

hwinpp - but even then - WHERE in Bologne? Every little restaurant will make it differently. Or does that call for a full tour of spagbol joints until you couldn't face another gagging mouthful Ha Ha!

I found the Greek souvlaki here in South Africa, made by Greeks and even non-Greek chefs, is 100% better than in Greece or the Greek Islands.........I'm not talking goat meat here - only lamb and pork. And oh the pita bread!Say no more except heaven from the oven

[Deleted]

In just about all of the developed countries, the various ethnic dishes have been improved by 'richer' ingredients, but there is always the risk of overkill when it becomes too rich. For example the only meatballs I ever tasted were in school, because at home we would have never used so much meat on pasta. (Of course the meat used to make the meatballs in school was about the lowest grade imaginable -- I suppose that in modern times, those things are about 50% GM soy protein.)

[fumobici]

It is said that ragu' bolognese is never served with spaghetti, typically being dished over tagliatelle fatto in casa, but I haven't done the requisite survey to confirm this. If it isn't I can't really imagine why.

[tod2]

Kerouac do you mean 50% Soy at the boarding school establishments of today? OR meatballs made at restaurants?

[Deleted]

I have no knowledge of boarding schools, but I presume the food is even worse there since they are prisoners.

As for modern meatballs, just look at the ingredients of meatballs at Subway, a major international chain, not forgetting that the ingredients are listed in the order of percentage.

Meatballs - Beef, water, soy protein concentrate, breadcrumbs (bleached wheat flour, sugar, salt, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, yeast), egg whites, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, Romano cheese (made from pasteurized sheep’s milk, culture, enzymes, salt), spice, dehydrated parsley, caramel color added. Marinara Sauce: tomato puree (water, tomato paste), crushed tomatoes, corn syrup, soybean oil, modified food starch, salt, dehydrated onions, parsley, spices, onion powder. Contains egg, milk, soy, and wheat.

[Deleted]

Nov 14, 2010 18:58:47 GMT fumobici said:

I'm of the school that one generally owes the recipe writer one slavish rendering of the recipe before going off in one's own direction, particularly if in unfamiliar culinary territory. Of course more often I just look at recipes to get general ideas about ingredients and preparation and incorporate those that sound good or conform to ingredients and/or cooking tools on hand or easily available. It's rare that I'll make a dish strictly to a recipe more than once however.

I am definitely of this school of taste. It makes perfect sense. I don't understand the point of going to the trouble of replicating a recipe if, from the get go, one is going to stick their nose up at some of the basic,simple ingredients until at least trying it with them first. It's not even food snobbery at that point,but,childish in my opinion.

[Deleted]

That would definitely make me a child then. I look at recipes for guidance, not as constraints or orders. I am the one who is doing the cooking and eating the food.

I decided that when I saw that just about everybody in the world outside of Alsace or Lorraine started making quiches without respecting the recipes. In France, 90% of the people substitute ham for lardons because they don't want to see bits of fat. Fuck them.

[lagatta]

I wouldn't make a recipe with half a cup of brown sugar either, but some authentic recipes do contain that. I simply wouldn't eat that, but I suppose the people who do might not eat what I cook either.

Hmm, of course a real quiche should include lardons, but I don't think there is any way to prevent others from describing all manner of savoury tarts as "quiches". (And yes Kerouac, I've seen ... but not eaten ... so-called quiches with tofu in lieu of the eggs. With leeks. I know you are crying about those poor leeks.

[tod2]

Sorry Kerouac, My mistake about school...here only private schools give the children lunch and are open to day scholars and boarders. Do you know hundreds of kids here can't wait to get back to boarding school it's so good these days! (I don't know how I survived St Dominics Convent and hated it). The food was shit too