Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese Sauce

I love to make an easy weeknight Bolognese sauce now and then, as my family loves it. But with an atmospheric river underway this rainy week, the true 4 hour recipe sounded like a pleasant project. Marcella Hazan, who died in 2013, was a cook book author who had a huge impact on the way Americans cook Italian food; and this recipe is a classic. Over 22,000 5-star ratings over the years in the New York Times!

It makes so much sense to double it, as it freezes beautifully. (Double all ingredients.) I was surprised that there were no garlic or herbs in her recipe, and forgive me Marcella, but I couldn’t resist adding them. Something to keep in mind is that when you add first the milk , and then next the wine, it takes each about half an hour to evaporate so there’s an hour of cooking time right there even before you do the final braise of three hours. The one other thing I did differently was to move my pot from the stovetop to the oven and baked it uncovered for the last three hours. I had read Kenji Lopez-Alts recipe on Serious Eats who seemed to think the flavor deeper that way. (Doubt this matters a lot.)

Less lean meats hold up better to longer cooking times, so choose beef or pork with an 80% lean ratio. (I did use less butter and oil though.) When serving, be sure to save some pasta water to toss with the sauce and pasta in the pot and cook together for a few minutes. Your house will smell divine and you’ll have something wonderful to show for being stuck at home all day.

This makes about 2 heaping cups for about 6 servings and 1 1/2 pounds of pasta.

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

3 Tbs. butter plus 1 Tbs. for tossing the pasta

1/2 cup chopped onion

2/3 cup chopped celery

2/3 cup chopped carrot (all vegetables chopped finely)

3/4 lb. ground beef chuck (or you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts beef)

Salt

Black pepper, ground fresh

1 cup whole milk

Whole nutmeg

1 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 cups canned Imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juices

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds pasta

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese at the table

Put the oil, butter and chopped onion in the pot and turn the heat on to medium. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. (And garlic, if using.) Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat them well.

Add ground beef and pork, if using, and a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well and cook until the beef has lost its raw red color. Add the milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating- about 1/8 tsp.-of nut meg, and stir.

Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. ( I added some chopped thyme, basil and oregano along with the tomatoes.) When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and that the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add 1/2 cup water whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Stir to mix the fat into the sauce, taste and correct for salt. ( if you decide to bake this in the oven, check every hour to see if it needs water and a stir; it probably will.)