Fettuccine Bolognese

The first time I ever had spaghetti bolognese was in London in 1976 at my cousin Rachie’s house when she put me and my friend Aviva up for a few nights enroute from Israel to the States.
There I discovered that the English really added milk to their tea, went the first time to Buckingham Palace and “discovered” the Queen. Kinda cool 

 for a 17 year old.
Rachie was a student and sharing her flat (apartment) with a bunch of other girls who added invisibility to their other characteristics. I assumed she asked them to make themselves scarce on our behalf.
She graciously gave us dinner the first night we were there and I had never tried spaghetti bolognese before. It was delicious.

I remembered it when I got married and while I don’t make it often, it is a nice change from meatballs and a more sophisticated dish. You also get to incorporate veggies “hidden” in the sauce and I like some red wine in there too to add a touch of panache.

I find that chopping the veggies in the food processor simplifies things and also allows you to conceal the veggies better from kids who might otherwise not eat them but I like to leave it a bit roughly chopped so it has nice body.

First take a large onion, peel and quarter it and toss into the processor.

Give it a whirl till the onions looks like this

You are rough chopping since you will chop them more with the rest of the veggies. Taking a spatula, push the onion all down and add the carrots and celery.

Whirl these too in the processor. Set aside. Take about 2 pounds (1 kilo) of chopped meat and after adding the oil to a nice large frying pan, add and break up the meat, leaving some chunks, sauteeing just till there’s a bit of pink left as below.

Using a slotted spoon, scoop out the meat and set aside. Then, put the whole lot of chopped vegetables in to the drippings and oil.

You are going to fry this up gently till they get a light golden color and then add your tomato paste (about 1/4 of a cup) and a can of crushed tomatoes. Let this start to burble on low simmer and add 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic. I don’t sautee the garlic here just cook it in the liquid. It can burn too easily and it’s fine this way. Then add the red wine, about 1/3 of a cup or so and cook on low heat for a bit (5 minutes or so) and stir stir stir. Make sure the veg don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the partially cooked chopped meat and since you’ve broken it up already you’re just stirring it into the mixture to meld with the other ingredients. I don’t totally break down the meat, rather leaving (on purpose) chunks to give the dish more heft. Add some salt and pepper and if you like add oregano (fresh if you have it but dried is fine) and some basil is nice too.

It will start to look like a thick sauce

Let this cook down for about 30 minutes. If you see it’s a bit liquidy and you want to thicken it, I find a slurry works well for this (easier and faster than a roux). A slurry is a thickening technique which is just flour and water mixed together with a fork or whisk till smooth and no lumps in it. First put in half a cup of water and then add about 2 tablespoons of flour to the water whisking briskly till smooth and add to the sauce and continue cooking. It will thicken nicely but again, beware, don’t let the sauce stick to the bottom of the pan, stir at intervals.

And here it is, cooked down. The meaty scent envelops you and then you make the pasta to go with. Now I won’t lie, most of the time it’s dry pasta from a bag, but the muse hit me and I just inherited a pasta machine from my in-laws (literally, inherited) so I had to make some fresh, but you totally can use the dry pasta. I find fettuccine works well to catch the sauce but really, just use whatever you like best.

I was in a healthy mood so it’s white whole wheat in there and lemme tell ya, the combo of sauce and fresh pasta is killer.

Bring water to the boil with salt and cook the pasta till done but NOT mushy (especially if fresh but also if dry) and ladle hot pasta into a bowl and ladle generous amounts of sauce on top. Dig into that goodness and give a happy sigh. Yumola.

Fettuccine Bolognese

1 large onion (or 2 medium) peeled, and quartered

2 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

2 stalks of celery, washed and roughly chopped

2 pounds or 1 kilo of chopped meat

2-3 tablespoons of oil

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

1/4 cup tomato paste (NOT sauce)

1/3 cup red wine

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt, or more, if needed, to taste

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

small bunch of fresh oregano OR 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

a few leaves of fresh washed basil (optional)

1/2 cup water and 2 tablespoons flour if making the slurry to thicken the sauce

One package dry pasta, fettuccine or other or better yet, fresh pasta usually one pound or 454 grams

Take the quartered onion and put in food processor with S shaped chopping blade. Whirl briefly to rough chop, then add carrots and celery till all is medium fine chopped (see pic above. Set aside.

Take a large frying pan and add the oil and gently fry and chop the chopped meat with the side of a large spoon till it’s chunked and lightly browned with some pink left to it (pic above). Scoop out meat with slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl. Put the chopped veggies into the oil and drippings and sautee gently till lightly browned and add garlic, tomato paste, wine, chopped tomatoes with juice from the can, salt, pepper, oregano and basil (if using) and cook on low heat, stirring at intervals so the veggies don’t stick, till a sauce starts to form (about 10 minutes and add partially cooked chopped meat, stirring into the sauce but no need to chop it more just stir it in. Cook on low heat about 30 minutes, stirring at intervals, till it cooks down and thickens. If too liquidy for your taste, make a slurry of 1/2 a cup of water and two tablespoons flour, whisked together with a fork or whisk, till smooth and no lumps. Add to the sauce and cook just till thickened.

In the meantime, take the pasta and cook according to directions in boiling water with salt (NO OIL it’s a fallacy to think it helps to prevent sticking, just make sure your water is boiling and you stir it in properly. Oiling the water makes the sauce have trouble adhering to the pasta.

Prepare bowls (rimmed ones are nice) and ladle in the hot pasta, ladling the sauce over the pasta. Serve to happy noises from your diners.