
I usually start thinking about what meals I want to make on the weekend as soon as I'm done my final weekend meal the week before. I always have such a hard time deciding what to make and eat because I never know what I will 'feel' like, so I need to start preparing a full week in advance. Sometimes I'll jot down ideas or start going through old stories for inspiration. But not this week. This week, my decision was easy and immediate. I wanted to make a meat sauce that would simmer for hours and hours and hours until it was exactly what I wanted. I think most of you are starting to get to know me by now and if I was going to go through the trouble of making a 6 hour sauce, then you KNOW I was going to go through the trouble of making the pasta from scratch too. This is my (semi)-lazy Sunday Tagliatelle Bolognese.
Ingredients
Olive Oil (I went with Wedding Hot Sauce this time...spicyyy)
2 Onions
3 cloves of Garlic
1 Carrot
1 lb. Ground Beef Chuck
6 tbsp. Butter
1 cup Milk
¼ tsp. Nutmeg
1 cup White Wine
Bay Leaf
Parmigiano Reggiano (for topping)
1 28 oz. can of Whole Tomatoes (I use San Marzano)
Directions
In a dutch oven, heat your olive oil and add your onions. Cook until translucent. Then add garlic and cook for about a minute or until it’s very fragrant and is starting to brown.
Add your carrots and give it a mix. Note: in the video below, I cut up my carrots rather large when normally I would dice them really small. I’ll admit the garlic was already in the pan with the carrots ready to go before I realised this isn’t how I would like to do things. Something about seeing a full piece of carrot in my bolognese is weird to me.
Anyways, once your carrots have started to cook, add half of your butter and let it melt. Once it’s fully melted, you’re ready to add your meat.
Add your meat to the pot, season with salt and pepper and start to break it down. Note: You don’t have to use beef for this. You can use turkey, lamb, pork or whatever other protein you want. I like to do a beef, veal and pork mix to really create a nice deep flavour profile.
When the meat is fully cooked, add your milk. This is a weird addition but it really softens the meat and adds fat. Fat = flavour. Let all the liquid of the milk cook off (about an hour) before adding your wine.
Then add your wine, bay leaf and nutmeg. Let that simmer together until all of the liquid has evaporated. Not to worry, this cooks for so long, there will be no alcohol left at the end.
If you’re keeping time, we’re about 2.5 hours into the process once the wine has boiled off and it’s now time to add your tomatoes.
Give the sauce a good mix and then leave it alone, uncovered on a very low simmer for 3 more hours. Check in every 30 minutes or so to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot. By the time it’s time to eat everything will just melt in your mouth like butter.
When you’ve got about 2 hours left on the sauce, start preparing your fresh pasta. I’ve linked my recipe here for you if you decide to go this route.
If not, about 30 minutes before your sauce is ready, start boiling your salted pasta water and cook your pasta according to package instructions.
Once your pasta is ready, reserve 1 cup of liquid, drain and add back to your pot. I like to add the second half of my butter to the plain pasta noodles to add a little flavour and to also help the sauce stick to the noodles better.
A little at a time, add the sauce and pasta water to your pasta and mix until you reach your desired pasta to sauce ratio.
Serve hot with freshly grated parmigiano reggiano.
Sunday Sauce at it’s best.
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