Classic Ragù Bolognese

Ingredients

• 3 TBSP olive oil
• 3 TBSP butter
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 oz pancetta (or bacon)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced fine
• 2 lbs ground beef*
• 1 lb ground pork*
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups white wine (Chardonnay works well)
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 cup tomato paste (about 2 small cans)
• 1 28 oz can tomatoes, whole or diced
• 1 TBSP jam or jelly*
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• freshly grated parmesan -- about 1 cup for the sauce, plus more for garnish

Instructions

1. To start, chop the vegetables as finely as you can to make a soffritto, which is the combination of onions, carrots and celery in a 2:1:1 ratio.
2. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large pot and cook the soffritto over low heat for five minutes. Salt the vegetables as you are cooking and stirring.
3. Add the chopped pancetta (or bacon) and minced garlic. Continue cooking for another 10 minutes or until the vegetables are beginning to brown. Don't worry about little brown bits in the bottom of the pan -- you want those brown bits. That's where all the flavor develops. Just use the edge of a spatula to scrape it off occasionally and stir it back into the vegetables.
4. Slowly add half the ground beef and ground pork to the pan, breaking the meat up as you go. Don't be in a rush to add the meat -- let the first half cook down a little before you add the second half. You're trying to evaporate the moisture from the meat, and if you add it all at once, you end up boiling the meat instead of browning it.
5. I have a round metal "chopper" that I use to continually chop the meat as it cooks, but you can get the same effect using your spoon or spatula. Just keep chopping through the meat until it breaks down into very small pieces.
6. When all the meat has been incorporated into the vegetables and browned, slowly add the milk to deglaze the pan and coat the meat. Using your spatula to release all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Adding the milk at this stage tenderizes the meat and somehow coats and protects it from the acidity of the tomatoes you'll add in a minute.
7. When the milk has deglazed the pan, slowly add the wine and cook five minutes, stirring well.
8. Add the beef broth and stir.
9. Add the tomato paste and 28 oz can of tomatoes. If the tomatoes are whole, cut them with the spatula and you're stirring the mixture.
10. To cut the acidity of the tomatoes, you need a little sugar. I don't like to add granulated sugar, but one spoonful of grape or berry jam works just as well. Stir that in now.
11. Add the grated nutmeg. I use a microplane and grate fresh whole nutmeg, but if you don't have those you can use store-bought ground nutmeg. Fresh really is amazing, so consider putting "microplane and whole nutmeg" on your wish list if you don't have those. 🙂
12. Add salt and pepper to taste.
13. Leaving the pot uncovered or just half-covered (so steam can escape), cook the bolognese for 3 - 3 1/2 hours, stirring often to make sure the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. This long cooking time isn't optional, because it's the only way to let the flavors develop.
14. If the mixture becomes too thick, add a little water or beef broth. As it goes along, the water will evaporate, which just intensifies the flavor of the bolognese. Part of the labor of love in this dish is adding liquid and letting it evaporate off. But your patient diligence will be rewarded at the end. 🙂
15. About a half an hour before you want to serve it, add the grated parmesan and stir well.
16. If oil develops at the top of the pot, just stir it back in. At the very end of the cooking time, if you want to spoon that off, you can. After refrigeration it will be easy to remove the excess oil if you want to wait for that.
17. You can serve this the day you make it, but it really shines if you let if rest in the fridge for a day before serving. I like to make a double-batch and freeze half for another meal.
18. Be sure to serve with more grated parmesan!

Notes