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Cook the Book: Bolognese Sauce

Posted by Caroline Russock, November 5, 2009 at 12:45 PM

Bolognese is my favorite sauce for pasta, and from fall until spring I'll always have a batch on hand. It's an all day project that involves lots of chopping, browning, and slow simmering, but it's one that I enjoy immensely. When I decided to make this bolognese from New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel I was under the impression that I would be spending all day in the kitchen, but this version of bolognese is another story.

I must confess that I didn't really read through all of the instructions before setting out to make this beast of a sauce. Once I had all of my ingredients assembled I sat down at the kitchen table and read the recipe. It was then that I realized that this wasn't any ordinary Bolognese—this was the three day Bolognese. That's quite an investment of time for a pasta sauce, but my interest was piqued, and I had the whole weekend ahead of me.

I chopped all of the vegetables, cubed the brisket, doused the whole thing with plenty of red wine, and stuck it in the fridge to marinate overnight. The next day marked the beginning of the tedious tasks that go into making this incredible bolognese. First, I had to pick out every last piece of brisket, drain and reserve the red wine, and painstakingly dry off the vegetables. Then I separated the canned tomatoes from their purée and put the tomatoes in the oven to roast, reduce, and bring out their flavors. After searing the meat in several batches, I removed it from the pan and added pancetta and the vegetables from the marinade. Once the vegetables were softened, the meat went back in with the roasted tomatoes. The whole mixture was left to simmer for two hours.

You might be thinking that this is the end of the story, but there's more, so much more.

After two hours of simmering, the meat had to once again be taken out of the sauce. To do this, I devised a system that involved a wire-mesh spider and a pair of tongs. It took a while, but it got the job done. At this point you can either cool the meat and sauce overnight, or go ahead and shred the brisket by hand. Impatience got the best of me and I opted for (somewhat) instant gratification: I shredded the meat into tiny pieces and moved on to the next step of the recipe. The tomato sauce, now dark red and enriched with all sorts of meat and vegetable juices, was put through a food mill, and placed back on the stove with the shredded brisket. This was one of those times that I dearly wished I had a food processor and not just a hand-cranked food mill.

The sauce looked and tasted pretty great at this point. I was more than tempted to forgo the last portion of the recipe, but my personal integrity made me soldier on. I sautéed 1/4-inch diced carrots, onions, and celery and added them back into the sauce along with a bouquet garni, then simmered the sauce for another hour.

The sun had set long before the sauce was finished and it was too late to serve it for dinner. I sampled a few spoonfuls before I packed it away into the refrigerator. It was like no other sauce that I had made before. The shreds of beef melted into the rich tomato sauce and the flavor can only be described as boeuf bourguignon meets bolognese. The caramelized beef and vegetables were apparent and it had a depth of flavor that none of the other versions of this sauce had managed to reach.

So, was all of the time worth it? Yes, especially because although the recipe claims that it makes three cups, my version left me with more than double that. I'll be eating this three day bolognese for a long time.

As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of New Classic Family Dinners to give away this week. Enter to win here »

Bolognese Sauce

- makes 3 cups -

Adapted from New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel.

Ingredients

Marinade

3 pounds beef chuck or brisket, in 1 piece
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 large carrot, peel and coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 cups red wine
1 1/2 teaspoons cracked black peppercorns

Sauce

5 pounds tomatoes, or four 28-ounce cans plus 1 cup of liquid from the cans
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 fat garlic cloves, halved, green shoots removed, and minced
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Canola oil
3 ounces pancetta, diced
2 cups homemade chicken stock (or 1 cup of canned broth and 1 cup of water)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 large celery stalks, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 medium onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
4 fat garlic cloves, halved, green shoots removed, and thinly sliced
A bouquet garni made with a handful each of parsley and thyme sprigs, and 2 bay leaves
1 6-ounce can tomato paste, dissolved in 1/2 cup water (if using fresh tomatoes only)

Procedure

1. Cut the meat across the grain into roughly 2-inch pieces. Toss with the coarsely chopped onion, carrot, celery, parsley, 1 cup of the red wine, and 1 teaspoon of the cracked pepper in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours, stirring once after a few hours.

2. The next day, preheat the oven to 400°F. If using fresh tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in half at the equator. If using canned whole tomatoes, remove the liquid from the cans (do not discard the liquid in the cans), but do not cut. Toss either fresh or canned tomatoes in a large bowl with 3 tablespoons olive oil, 4 minced garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Place on a baking sheets and pour on the juice from the bowl, but not from the can. Fresh tomatoes should be cut side down. Roast for 45 minutes to an hour, until the tomatoes are soft and beginning to blister (45 minutes for canned tomatoes). Remove from the heat.

3. Remove the meat from the marinade, wipe off the chopped vegetables, pat dry, and season with 1 teaspoon salt. Heat 1 tablespoon canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the oil is rippling, then put the meat in the pan in one layer. Sear the meat on all sides, working in batches so you don't crowd the pan. Each batch should take about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large Dutch oven or casserole.

4. When all the meat has been seared, reduce the heat to medium and add the pancetta to the pan. Stir for a couple of minutes, then add the vegetables and wine from the marinade and stir, scraping down the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the remaining cup of red wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the mixture to half it's volume, which should take 5 to 10 minutes. Scrape into the Dutch oven with the meat and add the chicken stock, the roasted tomatoes with their juice, 1 cup of the liquid from the canned tomatoes if using canned, and 1 teaspoon salt. Return to the heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. The meat should be fork-tender and the broth fragrant.

5. Using tongs, remove the meat from the stew and allow to cool until you can handle it. Shred the meat, using your fingers or 2 forks. Do not shred too finely.

6. If possible, refrigerate the meat in a covered bowl and the stew in its pot over night. The next day, lift off the fat from the top of the stew and discard. If you do not have the extra day, use a ladle to skim off the fat from the top of the liquid in the pot and discard. Put the contents of the pot through a food mill fitted with a medium or fine screen (fine enough to keep out the tomato seeds) and return to the pot. Stir the meat back into the sauce and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat.

7. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the finely diced carrot, celery, and onion, along with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper. Cook, stirring often, 5 minutes and add the sliced garlic. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes, or until the mixture is tender and very fragrant. Stir into the sauce. Add the bouquet garni and the dissolved tomato paste. Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour, until thick and aromatic, stirring often to make sure the stew doesn't stick on the bottom. If it becomes too thick, add water, a tablespoon at a time. Remove the bouquet garni. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Use as a sauce or filling for pasta. Freeze what you don't use in 2-cup containers.

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Tags: bolognese, brisket, Cook the Book, Mark Peel, New Classic Family Dinners, pastas, sauces, tomatoes