Ragù Bolognese
Milk before wine, wine before tomato, and three hours at a bare blip. The soffritto is where the patience pays.
- Prep
- 25m
- Cook
- 3h 15m
- Total
- 3h 40m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Moderate
Scale
Units
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 2 tbsp | Sweat slowly until soft and sweet 15m 15 minutes minimum, no colour. This is the flavour base. | Brown the meat hard, breaking it up 15m | Add and let it evaporate completely 12m Milk first — it tenderises the meat and rounds the acidity that follows. | Add and cook down until almost dry 10m | Simmer at the barest blip, part-covered, 3 hours 3h One bubble every few seconds. A rolling simmer makes the meat grainy. | |
| 2 tbsp | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 sticks | ||||||
| 500 g | ||||||
| 250 g | ||||||
| 2 tsp | ||||||
| 1 cup | ||||||
| 1 cup | ||||||
| 1 tin | ||||||
| 1 cup | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| a scrape | ||||||
-
Sweat slowly until soft and sweet
15m- butter 2 tbsp
- olive oil 2 tbsp
- onion 1
- carrot 1
- celery 2 sticks
15 minutes minimum, no colour. This is the flavour base.
-
Brown the meat hard, breaking it up
15m- from 1 Sweat slowly until soft and sweet
- beef mince 500 g
- pork mince 250 g
- salt 2 tsp
- whole milk 1 cup
-
Add and let it evaporate completely
12m- from 2 Brown the meat hard, breaking it up
- dry white wine 1 cup
Milk first — it tenderises the meat and rounds the acidity that follows.
-
Add and cook down until almost dry
10m- from 3 Add and let it evaporate completely
- tinned tomatoes 1 tin
- beef stock 1 cup
- bay leaf (optional) 1
-
Simmer at the barest blip, part-covered, 3 hours
3h- from 4 Add and cook down until almost dry
- nutmeg (optional) a scrape
One bubble every few seconds. A rolling simmer makes the meat grainy.
Why milk first
Added before the acidic ingredients, milk has time to work on the meat proteins while the pan is still neutral; its sugars also brown gently and add a background sweetness. Add it after the tomatoes and it curdles into visible specks instead.
Notes
- Less tomato than most people expect. This is a meat sauce with tomato in it, not the reverse.
- Tagliatelle, not spaghetti. A heavy sauce needs a broad noodle to cling to.
- Better on day two, and it freezes for three months.