Authentic Italian Bolognese
After my trip to Eatly in downtown Chicago I was able to find the most authentic high-quality ingredients for this dish. If you haven't been to Eatly its a must its specialty Italian store that carries a variety of authentic & classic Italian pastas, tomato sauces; canned, jarred & fresh, cheeses, olives, breads and wine! I could spend hours in there wandering around and discovering this and that. So of course I had to remake one of my favorite classic dishes Bolognese. I bought some fresh pappardelle noodles & Parmigiano Vacche Rosse & authentic Italian tomato sauce. What is better then Parmigiano Reggiano? Parmigiano Vacche Rosse is aged more than 24 months and comes from a rare red cows milk which results in a long aging, sweet, delicate and persistent taste. Grate this on top of the Bolognese for the added richness.The key to a good Bolognese is the soffritto, the frying of onion, celery & carrots in olive oil and a little butter. This gives the sauce a good flavorful base but cooking this for four hours with the ground beef chuck, tomatoes & wine starts to break down the soffritto blending the flavor right into the sauce.
Equipment
- 6 Quart Dutch Oven
- 6 Quart Pan
- Strainer
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef chuck
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 cup carrot diced
- 1 cup celery diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 lb pappardelle noodles fresh or dried
- 1.5 cups dry white wine
- 28 oz Italian tomatoes canned, jarred or fresh
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup Parmigiano Vacche Rosse or Parmigiano Reggiano
- pinch of nutmeg grated
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Bring dutch oven to medium-low heat. Add in olive oil, butter and diced onion. Saute onion for 2-3 minutes or until translucent. Add in garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes until it becomes fragrant. Add the celery and carrot and cook for 2 minutes coating mixture well.
- Add in the ground chuck beef break up meat with wooden spoon cooking until no longer pink.
- Add in the milk and let it gently simmer stirring frequently until it has evaporated. Add pinch of nutmeg and stir.
- Add the wine and let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add in the tomatoes (crushing them by hand if they are whole) and mixing well. Bring the tomatoes to a summer and then turn down the heat so the sauce cooks slowly. Cook uncovered, for 4 hours or more. If sauce starts to dry out add in some pasta water.
- Season with salt and pepper. Toss the sauce with the cooked and drained pasta noodles and serve with freshly grated Parmigiano Vacche Rosse or Parmigiano Reggiano.
