Bolognese Meat Sauce
This is a meat sauce unlike any other that I’ve made. It has ground beef chuck, tomatoes, milk and white wine to name a few of the ingredients. As with previous recipes, Marcella has given detailed instructions to guide you along the way. Please buy the cookbook if you have not already. It is worth every penny for this pasta section alone but the real value lies with Marcella’s explanations for the cooking techniques and historical tidbits.
The sauce does require a watchful eye in the beginning of the cooking process. Then it basically takes care of itself as it simmers gently for at least 3 hours. My sauce was ready at 4 hours. Tagliatelle, a homemade pasta similar too but slightly wider than fettuccini, was recommended for this sauce. I was not in a pasta making mood so I decided to use one of the suggested dried box pasta shapes. I picked rigatoni because of my new found obsession with cylinders. The sauce is slightly sweet with a soft texture that does a good job coating the pasta.
I adore this recipe! We make it often, always with homemade tagliatelle. When in Bologna, I cannot eat this often enough. It is always a big hit with our dinner guests.
It looks gorgeous Irene!
Is there a story behind that “newfound obsession with cylinders”?
I am ashamed to say that this sauce was one of my more notable failures in world Hazan. I took all day to cook it. I made the pasta. It was very disappointing. It just did not taste very good. Unfortunately for me I don’t have a Nonna making me this stuff so I can get a sense of what it should taste like. A lot of people are obviously very fond if it. It may have been my meat, it may have been the heat on the stove. I don’t know. But my girlfriend makes a nicer sauce, for me, using a can of soup as a base. Horrific I know.
I’ll cook this again one day to try and get a better result.
I am totally enjoying following this blog. The recipes are amazing and you all rock!!! Thank you all for such a terrific journey. I can’t wait to see what’s ahead.
I made this last week for the first time. I have discovered Marcella Hazan’s book and am going nuts over the recipes. They bring me back to authentic cooking I had in Italy a few years ago and sorely miss here in the states.
Thank you for taking this journey. Indeed this Bolognese meat sauce recipe is exceptional in it’s subtlety and it’s depth. THe photo looks amazing.
While I applaud Irene for making – on her first try – what looks like a very successful ragù, I am horrified and troubled by David’s post. I first set down the recipe for Bolognese meat sauce in 1973 and I hope I am not being immodest in saying that it revolutionized peoples’ ideas about the Bolognese in particular and Italian cooking in general. I cannot count the number of home cooks and chefs who have been guided by this recipe, without the benefit of an Italian nonna. “A lot” would be a huge understatement. Even some writers who have been very critical of me and my work have acknowledged the appeal of my Bolognese. I cannot imagine how a very intelligent man like David could have diligently followed instructions and messed up. That his girlfriend’s sauce made with a can of soup tastes nicer may be the single most jarring remark I have heard in my entire career.
Deborah, you have a wicked imagination.
Marcella, it is now I who fears that I have offended you. You should know me well enough by now to be confident that any failure in my cooking of your recipes is solely due to my amateur status in the kitchen. I have no doubt many professional and accomplished home cooks have lauded your recipe – indeed I have read their views as part of my research while the sauce was simmering.
I do try and be honest about my failures. I think many people on the internet either do not disclose them or are generally more successful in their cooking than I am. But please don’t take my failures personally. If my successes did not outnumber my failures and my pleasure not overshadow my disappointments I would not be persisting with my studies!
I will return to the sauce one day.