The ancient Bolognese (Bo-lo-nyay-zay) style of single-handed swordplay was crafted and mastered in the rough and rugged town of Bologna, Italy. It is an effective way to render any opponent into minced meat. On the other hand, the Bolognese style of pasta sauce is a tasty way to turn any minced meat (preferably not an opponent, unless it’s a pig or a cow) into a thick flavourful ragu. Either, or both, are a great way to settle the argument about what’s for dinner.
Bolognese meat sauce
serves 42 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
2 ribs of celery, finely diced
1 glass red wine
2 cloves of garlic
1 small can (156ml) of tomato paste
1-14 oz can of tomato purée
1 cup of unsalted beef or chicken stock
1 tsp dried, ground fennel seed
½ tsp ground cloves
1 pound ground beef, pork, chicken, veal, turkey or moose
2 large spicy Italian sausages, uncooked, removed from the casing
Salt, at the end of cooking to taste
500g of dried spaghetti or rigatoni
pinch of salt
½ bunch of chopped fresh parsley
fresh cracker pepper
really good olive oil
Get a large pot on the stove over medium high heat.
When the pot is hot, pour in the oil and wait for 10 seconds until it’s hot. Now add the onions and carrots. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring around occasionally until the carrots and onions get really nice and caramelized.
If some spots in the pot start to get really dark and a bit burnt you can pour some cold water on that spot and then carry on cooking the rest of the onions and carrots.
Add the finely minced celery and crank up the heat to full tilt. Pour in the wine and boil it until the boozey smell evaporates, about 2 minutes. Add the stock, garlic, fennel, cloves, tomato paste and stir it all up until smooth.
Reduce the heat to simmer and add all the meat in small chunks. Stir the meat all about, doing your best to mash it up into the tiniest little specs you can manage. It should be a consistently chunky mess.
Pop a lid on top and simmer for 1 hour. Stir it about every 10 minutes. Remove the lid and determine if the sauce is thick enough. It should be quite a thick ragu.
To make the pasta, bring a big pot of salty water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook check the package for cooking time, probably 8 minutes. Drain the pasta and immediately toss in the Bolognese sauce, tossing to coat.
If it is not thick enough, simply turn up the heat to medium and cook until the liquid reduces. If it’s too thick, add some of the pasta water.
When it reaches you desired thickness taste it and add salt until it tastes perfect. If you add salt too early and the sauce reduces, the sauce can become too salty.
Serve up four piping hot bowls and make sure you top everyone’s pasta with the meaty bits that settle to the bottom.
Top with loads of pepper, fresh chopped parsley and a drizzle of good olive oil.
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