The Best Bolognese Recipe!

BEEF BOLOGNESE RECIPE

While I like to develop my own recipes whenever possible, sometimes the best recipes come from the masters and you just have to accept there isn't much more you can do to improve upon them. Bolognese is one of my favorite dishes of all time, and Marcella Hazan has the best version of this classic I've ever made.

The only variation I make to this bolognese recipe is adding 6 cloves of freshly minced garlic.  I like to serve this sauce over freshly made pasta, but store bought is great as well, I'd suggest a pasta with a lot of surface area or hollow pasta so the sauce has something to adhere to.  I make mine with fresh linguine, but you can use store bought penne or fusilli as well.  As with all pasta dishes, but sure to cook your pasta al dente and add the hot pasta with the hot sauce and mix well to allow some of the sauce to absorb into the pasta. 

If you make it, leave your photos or reactions to the dish in the comments, I'd love to see them!

From "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" by Marcella Hazan 
YIELD: 4-6people
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1⁄2 cup chopped onion
2/3 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup chopped carrot
3⁄4 pound ground beef chuck Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1 cup whole milk Whole nutmeg
1 cup dry white wine
1-1⁄2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, torn into pieces, with juice
1-1⁄4 to 1-1⁄2 pounds pasta (preferably spaghetti), cooked and drained
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese at the table
PREPARATION
1. Put oil, 3 tablespoons butter and chopped onion in a heavy 3-1⁄2-quart pot and turn heat to medium. Cook and stir onion until it has become translucent, then add chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat well.

2. Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble meat with a fork, stir well and cook until beef has lost its raw, red color.

3. Add milk and let simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating, about 1/8 teaspoon, fresh nutmeg and stir.

4. Add wine and let it simmer until it has evaporated. Add tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When tomatoes begin to bubble, turn heat down so that sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through the surface.

5. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it will begin to dry out and the fat will separate from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add 1⁄2 cup water as necessary. At the end of cooking, however, the water should be completely evaporated and the fat should separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.

6. Add remaining tablespoon butter to the hot pasta and toss with the sauce. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side.