Ingredients
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1 kilo/ 2 pounds Ground BeefShoulder or ribs
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1.5 kilo/ 3 pounds Osso Buco
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500g/ 1 pound Chicken Liver
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2 medium-big finely diced Onions
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2 Cubed Carrot
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3 stalks finely diced Celery rib
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3 tbsp Olive oil
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2 tbsp Soy sauce
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1 tbsp Fish sauce
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for the osso buco all purpose flour
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1 cup Red wine
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1 litel/ 33 fl oz TomatoesCanned or fresh
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1 cup Tomato paste
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1 litel/ 33 fl oz chicken stock
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6 full cloves Garlic
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8 -10 branches Thyme
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2 tbsp Kosher Salt
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2 tbsp Black Pepper
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For Serving
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500g/ 1 pound short pastaI used Farfalle but any pasta shape will do
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A few leaves for garnish Basil
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Grated finely Parmesan cheese
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for drizzle Olive oil
Directions
Where can I start describing Ragu Bolognese Sauce? this wonderful full body meat sauce is one of my favorite pasta sauces ever and one of the popular meat sauces in the Italian cuisine.
Originating from Bologna, Italy, this sauce made its worldwide reputation by being a key sauce for pappardelle or lasagna filling much because of Pellegrino Artusi’s cookbook of 1891, La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene which referred to the meat sauce as “bolognese”.
Ragu Bolognese Sauce is a heavy pasta sauce that for me goes really good in cold winter nights when I’m desperately looking for a comforting dish.
There is nothing like a hearty Dutch oven filled with Ragu Bolognese Sauce, I can spoon it straight from the pot or use a good bread to wipe out all this wonderful sauce.
Making a Ragu Bolognese Sauce the long way
A good Ragu Bolognese Sauce needs to be thick, it’s a meat sauce before it’s a tomato sauce.
We use different kinds of meats in order to add different texture and flavors into the sauce.
For this recipe, I used 3 different meat cuts;
- Minced ribs because of the tender texture and great aroma.
- pieces of Osso buco with the bone – this meat is very tender in long cooking and the bone adds gelatin that will thicken our sauce. The meat will fall apart from the bone so we just fish the bones out after the cooking for they have served their part.
- Chicken livers (yes you heard it right)- chicken livers are a great sauce flavor enhancer and a sauce thickening agent. You can grind it in a food processor so you won’t feel the little chicken liver pieces but I actually like to chop roughly to small bites so you will come across these little great flavor enhancers in the dish. it will make you think… mmmm… I wonder what that was.
Cooking it? oven baking it? Ragu Bolognese Sauce can handle it all
There are no short cuts, Ragu Bolognese Sauce needs time and low heat in order for the tomatoes and meat to be fully incorporated and for the liquids, (in this recipe it’s the chicken stock and tomatoes) to be absorbed into the meat and give it the full deep flavors.
I decided I don’t want to choose between cooking the sauce on the stove and baking it in the oven, I use both methods.
Starting by incorporating the sauce on the stove for 1 hour and then move the Dutch oven pot into the Oven baking it on low temperature without the lid for about 4 hours.
This will ensure that the meat will get the nice golden brown color and for big amount of fluids evaporation so we will end up with a real thick sauce.
Steps
1
Done
20 minutes
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cooking the minced meatSet a bit Iron skillet over high heat. |
2
Done
7 minutes
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Searing the Osso Buco |
3
Done
1 hour
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making the sauceIn the same Dutch oven, throw the chicken livers for a quick browning, not more than one minute, add the wine and cook for another 30 seconds. |
4
Done
30 minutes
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cook the meat with the sauce |
5
Done
4 hours
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bake the Ragu |
6
Done
10 minutes
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finishing steps and serving time |