Thread by @aIIegoricaI

Bolognese is the most iconic Italian pasta dish, and it tastes so beautiful. Fortunately, it’s very easy to make!

In this thread I’ll show you how to make it!

These are your ingredients!

1kg ground beef, 100g pancetta, 2 celery stalks, 2 large carrots, 1 brown onion, 3 garlic cloves 1 can of plum tomatoes, some tomato paste, parmesan, bay leaves, pasta. Also: wine, beef stock, olive oil, salt & pepper.

Firstly, do your prep work! Peel and chop the vegetables and set them aside. You can mix the carrot, onion & celery in a bowl but keep the garlic separate.

In a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat, add a little olive oil and the pancetta. Once the pancetta is cooked, add in the beef and let it cook too. Try and break the beef down as much as you can while doing this.

Then, pour in a little wine, maybe 100ml. It can be red or white, it doesn’t matter. Cheap wine is fine, as long as it is not too sweet like many cheap new world wines tend to be. Let this simmer until the alcohol has evaporated, around 10 minutes.

Next, add the carrot, celery & onion and a big pinch of salt and mix together. Let this cook until the onion has turned translucent and everything smells good, about 12 minutes. Then, add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Once the vegetables smell lovely, add in around a tablespoonful of tomato paste and mix this thoroughly into the meat and vegetables. Let it cook for about two minutes.

Next, add the can of peeled plum tomatoes. Once added, swish a little water around the can to rinse it and pour this liquid into the pot, too – no point wasting it!

Mix everything together and squish any tomato pieces, and let this cook for a further two minutes.

After this, add around 250ml of good quality beef (or chicken) stock and mix together. You don’t want there to be a huge amount of liquid, just enough to let the magic happen. Once added, turn the heat down to low.

Once the stock has been added, throw in your bay leaves. If you have some leftover rinds from Italian hard cheese, put these in too as they give great flavour.

Now, importantly, leave it alone! Check the food every half hour and give it a stir, but it needs time now.

After a couple of hours on low heat, the sauce should be at this consistency. Remove the bay leaves & cheese rind.

Fill another pot with water and put it on to boil. Once boiling, add your pasta. Traditional bolognese is made with fresh egg pasta, but dried pasta is good too.

Once the pasta has almost finished cooking, take a mug and scoop up a little of the pasta water. This will help the sauce emulsify in a couple of minutes.

Once the pasta has cooked, remove everything from the heat. Strain the pasta before adding it back to the saucepan. Then, add a couple of ladles of the meat sauce, a splash of the reserved water, and mix everything thoroughly together. You did it!

Now you’re ready to serve!

Serve in warmed bowls with some freshly grated parmesan and perhaps a little parsley if you like. Enjoy!

If you liked this, dozens of other recipes can be found in my latest book Sustenance, which is currently on sale with my other two books for 45% off!

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