November 2012
I have a love hate relationship with Bolognese. It’s mainly love, like, I want to lick the plate clean when I eat it, but there is also a bit of hate, when I skip over it on a menu because I convince myself I don’t “need the beef”.
I have a love hate relationship with Bolognese. It’s mainly love, like, I want to lick the plate clean when I eat it, but there is also a bit of hate, when I skip over it on a menu because I convince myself I don’t “need the beef”.
Who am I kidding? I always need the beef. No matter how
unforgiving the midsection of whatever outfit I am wearing, or how much cheese
I ate before dinner, or dessert I plan to indulge in after, I always need the
beef if it is coming to me in the form of Bolognese.
I’ve made Bolognese several times. The first time I made it, I used a lot of
herbs-- thyme, basil, bay leaf, and it tasted a lot like Shepard’s pie filling.
I also made it in the middle of July in Maryland. It was delicious, but that
recipe was simply not meant to be my go-to Bolognese.
The second time I made it, I used lots of red wine, lots of
tomato. This version was more like the Bolognese I was looking for, but it was
just a little too red-- deep, heavy red.
I’ll remember that Bolognese as Soviet Bolognese.
The last time I made Bolognese, I think I finally got it
right. I was inspired by a coworker, who shared the recipe with me. I made it
right before Hurricane Sandy. I would like to think God had a hand in this one,
like he knew I was going to be stuck in my apt for four days following, and
would need something like this Bolognese to pull me through.
I think the white wine is what gets me on this. I love the
acidity of the white more than the richness the red gave to the other
Bolognese. I supposed I could trying
using a different red, but the milk is also something to consider in this, as
it gives this Bolognese a silkiness that I don’t think would be possible in
other combinations.
This Bolognese is also ridiculously easy---one pot! I added
probably an extra cup of milk and extra wine as it bubbled away, just as I felt
it was getting too dry. I also used a
lot of carrot, onion, and celery, and kept them in larger chunks than normal
because I love the texture and taste of extra and larger bits of veg. Whole
foods didn’t have pancetta, so I bought a piece of salt pork and ground it up
in the food processor. I used 1 lb of ground beef/1 lb of ground veal instead
of 1 lb of ground pork because Whole Foods was out of ground pork. I probably used closer to a whole tube of
tomato paste as well.
Side story: One of my favorite Bolognese memories occurred in
Florence. I was on holiday with L and she was just getting over a bout of
stomach flu that started in Paris. We had spent our last day in Paris with her
near death and me trying to be a polite friend by not stopping to eat or eating
too much in front of her. We had taken the overnight train to Florence, and
after a simple and light pastry breakfast, were starving by lunchtime. It was a
beautiful day, and we sat down at a little restaurant off Piazza San Croce at
an outdoor table. Although L ordered a normal lunch, she decided by the time it
got in front of her that she was not ready to eat a real meal just yet. I had
ordered a wild board ragu and simply could not control myself and gobbled the
whole thing down in front of her. Sorry L, but I remember exactly how the ragu
tasted to this day.
No comments:
Post a Comment