During the current lockdown in Paris, you can still buy most things in supermarkets. Granted, the selection is smaller, as some items are more popular than others. Butter is popular, of course, and so is flour. Luckily, lockdown or not, I always have a good stock of chocolate on hand, but I do neglect to replenish my chocolate supply. But the pasta and rice aisles were the most damaged, and there were few options to choose from.
Since I’m limiting my time to go out and buy food, I went to the frozen food store Picard the other day. Everyone in France loves picard, although I’m usually happy chopping onions and don’t need to buy frozen pre-chopped onions or buy ice cream. (Theirs are pretty good, but I usually keep a few batches of my own in the freezer.) But I was craving pizza, and they had a frozen pizza with arugula and speck. PasmalAs it is said in French, it actually means “not bad.” However frozen pizza seems to be as popular as rice and pasta, so I had to buy another pizza that wasn’t as good (Too bad. ) but I did pick up a bag of onions and some ground beef because I’ve been craving it too Bolognesethey were there, and I was there too. So I gave in.
I will not get involved in the debate about what is and is not Bolognese because we have more pressing things to think about right now. But this gave me the opportunity to try a famous recipe from Marcella Hazan, who has written several highly regarded Italian cooking cookbooks. (Although some readers from Italy saw on social media that I added butter to the sauce when making this Marcella dish, and had something to say about it. If I remember correctly, butter is stirred in milk, an ingredient in the classic dish. But let’s give them a lot of leeway for now.)
As an Italian, Marcela certainly has strong opinions. She complained about the overuse of garlic, which she felt was an unbalanced dish, and the use of more butter than any Italian chef. Her famous tomato sauce has just four ingredients, one of which is 5 ounces/140 grams of butter. I haven’t made it yet, but I’ve heard it’s a life-changing tomato sauce. (Frankly, life-changing sounds good right now.) Marcela loves butter and uses it in her pâté, too.
I do remember one time I was in Italy, staying at a friend’s apartment, and going to the local grocery store to pick up a few things. One of them was a packet of butter, and when I was checking out, the guy behind the counter made sure to hold it up and tell me, “Here’s breakfast!” I guess he wanted to make sure I didn’t cook or bake with it.
Making bolognese also gave me the opportunity to use some San Marzano tomatoes that I picked up at Terroirs d’Avenir, where I went to pick up some produce about a week ago. (Is anyone else having trouble keeping track of what is said and when these days?) For some reason, they have #10 cans (5 lbs, 10 oz/2550 g) of their famous, tangy canned tomatoes, and it’s great to see them sold in bulk. Most people shop in Paris every few days, and only a strong person would eat that many tomatoes. I would be even happier if I could turn some tomatoes into chocolate.
It also gave me the opportunity to finally use this fun three-part Gien dish I picked up at a flea market a few years ago.
This meat sauce may be a little untraditional, but if you know Marcela, you won’t want to fight her. I met her twice. Once, she came to a restaurant where I worked for dinner. At the time, the coat rack for guests was located near the pastry area, and when I saw the giant mink coat she wore into the restaurant hanging on the coat rack, well, I guess I don’t need to tell you what I had to do: try it on! I did, and for a moment, I felt like Marcela. (The cigarette smoke on my clothes also helped get me into the mood.) Another time, I was at a dinner party, sitting to her left. The waiter came over and told her that there was a dish with Parmesan cheese, and specifically told her that the stuff in the green can was not Parmesan cheese and that he wanted to explain it to her.
After he finished explaining and left the table, she turned to me, her signature Jack Daniel’s glass in one hand, and said, “What the hell is he talking about?”
I didn’t want to “f” Marcella’s recipe, but made a few changes. I kept the butter but adjusted the amounts of the other ingredients, as well as the cooking time, because three (or four) hours is a long, long time and mine tasted good after one hour but even better after the second hour. If you have one of those slow cookers or Instant Pot pressure cookers, you can probably adapt this meat sauce to one of those. I don’t know what Marcella would say about that, so if you do, that might be our little secret.
Bolognese
raw material
- 3 spoon butter Salted or unsalted, add 1 tablespoon for finishing pasta
- 3 spoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup (60g) diced onion
- 1/2 cup (65g) diced celery
- 1/2 cup (65g) diced carrots (peeled)
- 12 oz (340 g) Ground beef (I recommend using products with at least 15% fat)
- 1 teaspoon Salt or more flavors
- freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup (180ml) whole milk
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 cup (250ml) dry white wine
- 1 1/2 Cup(350ml) canned plum tomatoes crush and use their juice
- 1 1/2 spoon ketchup
- 1 pounds (450 grams) pasta
instruct
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Melt the butter and olive oil in a stockpot over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring constantly, until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the celery and carrots and cook, stirring a few times, until they begin to wilt, 3 to 4 minutes.
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Add the ground beef, salt and some freshly ground pepper. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring, until beef is no longer raw on the outside. Pour in the milk and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the milk is absorbed. Sprinkle in the nutmeg and wine and continue cooking until the wine is mostly absorbed. (These steps may take a little longer than you think, maybe 10 to 15 minutes, but this is not a sauce that needs to be rushed.)
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Add the tomatoes to the juice and tomato sauce. Let it come to a near boil, then reduce the heat to as low as possible until the sauce is almost bubbling. Cook the sauce uncovered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid is absorbed but the mixture is still moist, rich, and thick. (There’s a picture of it in the spoon in the post.) You can use the sauce now, or if you want to give it a little extra attention, you can cook it for an additional hour, adding 1/2 cup (125 ml) of water, stirring little by little as you continue to cook, stirring occasionally to make the sauce creamier.
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Taste and add salt if needed.
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To serve, cook pasta in lightly salted water according to package directions. (Reserve a little of the pasta cooking water before draining.) Drain the pasta and add the hot pasta to the bologna sauce with a tablespoon of butter. If the sauce needs to be thinned out a little, add a small amount of the reserved pasta water.