we had a bolognese at the talimo’s a couple weeks back. it was excellent enough to try and reproduce exactly, but i have taken a bizarre (yet principled) stand against ground turkey in italian cooking, so i cobbled my own together — creating a kind og bastard child of
Emeril Lagasse and
Mario Batali.
(i’m not going to be able to get that vision out of my head, like, ever.)
mine ended up a little dry, so keep the wine on hand — next time i’m probably going to add another 1/2 cup of white and red to the recipe so it doesn’t go bone dry after 2 hours of simmering.
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1/4 pound pancetta or slab bacon, ground
- 1 pound beef, ground
- 1 pound pork sausage, removed from casings
- 1 whole tomato
- 6oz tomato paste
- 2 cup milk
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and onion, stirring, until browned and the fat is rendered, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add butter, 3 tbs of olive oil, and the meat. Cook over high heat, stirring to keep the meat from sticking together until browned.
- Add the tomato, paste, milk, wines and spices. Simmer over medium-low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.