Notes on Bolognese

Bolognese is my go-to Sunday meal. I've made it ~30 times over the past 2 years. I have a lot of thoughts. Here are a few.

Peter's Bolognese

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb of ground beef
  • 1 lb of ground pork
  • 0.5 lb of ground veal (if available)
  • 2 carrots
  • 4 celery stalks
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 shallot
  • couple cloves of garlic
  • 4 tbsp of butter
  • olive oil
  • 1 cup of white wine
  • 1 cup of whole milk
  • dash of nutmeg
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes (28 oz)
  • 1 cup of chicken stock

Steps:

  1. Chop onion, shallot, carrot, and celery. Set aside.
  2. Add a bunch of oil and butter into a heavy bottom pan.
  3. Cook the onions and shallots until their translucent. Really let them go. Do not be afraid.
  4. Add the garlic and let it get fragrant.
  5. Add chopped carrots and celery and cook together for a few minutes getting them all coated together.
  6. Add the meats and cook til they’re totally brown. I usually shove all the veggies to the side and brown the meat on one side of the pan.
  7. Add a cup of milk and let it cook until the liquid is gone.
  8. Add a dash of nutmeg and stir it around.
  9. Add the cup of white wine and cook until it is all evaporated.
  10. Add tomatoes and bring it down to low low simmer.
  11. Simmer for at least 3 hours (you can go as long as you want, I shoot for 6) and stir in some chicken stock when you need some more liquid. If you run out of chicken stock then you can switch to water. Just make sure there isn’t any liquid left when its done.
  12. Cook pasta and then throw it into the pot with the sauce. Stir it around and then serve it with heaps of parm.

Notes on noodles

These are my top 3 noods:

1️⃣ Mezzi Rigatoni – These are the best noodles for bolognese. Forks down. They pick up the sauce but at only half the length of a normal rigatone you can put more than one in your mouth at once.

2️⃣ Rigatoni – Obvious choice for bolognese.

3️⃣ Rotelle – Wagon wheels baby. They pick up sauce and look dope at the same time. Caveat, they make you feel a bit like a 5-year-old.

Notes on meat

More notes coming soon. Until then, more meat is better. 

Notes on wine

You can use red or white wine. 

Red - darker sauce, richer flavor, more acidic. 

White - lighter sauce, sweeter flavor, a bit less acidic.

One time we had too much meat to do all at once so I did half in white wine and half in red wine. Probs the best bolognese I've ever made.