Classic Ragù Bolognese

I had lunch with my dear friend, Cathy Taylor, this past Tuesday. As we do so often, we met at Cristiano’s in Marysville. Usually we meet on Wednesdays, because Wednesday is Tomato Basil soup day, and Cristiano’s has the best tomato soup you will ever have. But this week, Tuesday was the only open day, and we really couldn’t put our lunch date off. We’re going to France next month to teach the European Calvary Chapel Pastors’ Wives retreat and we needed to finalize which of us would be teaching what.

I’m very glad our meeting was forced to a Tuesday, because had we met on our favorite day, we would have ordered our favorite soup, and we would have missed out on Cristiano’s amazing new item: Gnocchi with Bolognese Sauce. They described it so beautifully on their chalkboard menu that we both ended up ordering it, and that was a good thing.

Our 3-hour lunch was wonderful. We talked through our retreat, current ministry challenges, the joys of grandmotherhood, and all the news we’d been saving for a face-to-face. (Have I mentioned how much I adore Cathy? Gift. She is a gift to me.) When we finally left our table, I brought with me half of my lunch and a determination that I would be making a gigantic batch of both gnocchi and bolognese sauce this week.

The gnocchi is in the freezer. The bolognese sauce is cooling on the stove. When I have better natural lighting, I’ll allow myself a plateful. I never dreamed I’d be one to plan all my meals around which lighting was most conducive to picture-taking, but there you have it.

While I would love to call this a “quick weeknight meal,” that would be a giant whopper. This is a recipe to try on a day when you have time to don an apron, and put on music you love, and think about how much you adore your family. It’s to save for a day when you don’t mind entering full-body into a labor of love. Because that’s what this is … and it is worth the labor.

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I wanted mine with the gnocchi I made the other day …

 

… and garlic bread sticks, of course.

Bite?

Dave, on the other hand, is a pasta purist. Spaghetti only.

With a fork.

But there’s no law against pasta hybridizing.

Just in case you want to see how finely I chopped the soffritto, here’s what it looked like while browning.

And if you’re unsure about what pancetta is, here it is in the package (from Trader Joe’s … where else?), and then on my cutting board:

And here’s perhaps the best picture of all: a second batch for my freezer. Happy, happy, happy.