{"id":1195,"date":"2016-01-05T19:24:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T00:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whatsusaneats.com\/?p=1195"},"modified":"2016-04-05T22:43:41","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T02:43:41","slug":"mario-batalis-ragu-bolognese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsusaneats.com\/?p=1195","title":{"rendered":"Mario Batali’s Ragu Bolognese"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was\u00a0growing up, pasta\u00a0with meat sauce consisted of browning and draining the fat off ground beef and adding a jar of Prego<\/em> or Old World Style Rag\u00f9<\/em>\u00a0sauce. However,\u00a0Mario Batali’s\u00a0Tarry Lodge<\/em>\u00a0restaurant forever altered how I enjoy pasta with meat sauce. The\u00a0Tagliatelle Bolognese<\/em>\u00a0at Tarry Lodge<\/em>\u00a0is mouth-watering.\u00a0However, Mr. Batali’s\u00a0bolognese is not<\/em> a sauce – it is truly a ragu<\/em>. All of the\u00a0main courses at Tarry Lodge\u00a0<\/em>are delicious but 9 times out of 10, I end up ordering\u00a0Tagliatelle Bolognese<\/em>. I can’t help myself\u00a0and every time<\/em> I lick all evidence\u00a0of the bolognese off the dish.<\/p>\n

Quite a few years ago, well before my first visit to\u00a0Tarry Lodge<\/em>\u00a0in 2008, I found Mr. Batali’s recipe for\u00a0Ragu Bolognese<\/em>\u00a0on the internet. (That was back when we had dial-up modems to connect to the World Wide Web.) I tried the recipe but with lackluster results. However, a few years ago I decided to look up the\u00a0recipe and found that\u00a0it has been adapted from its\u00a0original version. The changes are\u00a0slight, but make\u00a0a world of difference.\"IMG_8229\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m not going to lie – the prep work for\u00a0Ragu Bolognese<\/em>\u00a0is labor intensive. The recipe calls for finely chopped veggies. I spent about\u00a0one hour prepping all of the ingredients. Also my butcher will\u00a0not grind the pancetta for me, so I manually\u00a0chop\u00a0it up with a knife – not a simple task. To add insult to injury,\u00a0the ragu\u00a0needs to simmer for 2 to 3 hours on the range top. You could dice all of the\u00a0ingredients\u00a0into larger pieces, but in my opinion it defeats the whole purpose of this recipe. For the best tasting ragu, the ingredients need to be finely chopped so that they all melt and meld together over a 3 hour simmer. The result is a meat ragu which is not “saucy,” but\u00a0rich, flavorful and delicious.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8237\"<\/a>\"IMG_8238\"<\/a>There are a few interesting aspects to Mr. Batali’s\u00a0Ragu Bolognese<\/em>. Firstly, it does not include a can of tomatoes, but instead concentrated tomato paste which adds deep\u00a0flavor. Secondly, because the recipe is made with red meat, I assumed that the ragu would be made with red wine. However, 90% of the\u00a0bolognese recipes I’ve found use\u00a0a dry white wine, which provides a crisp, fresh taste to the ragu. Thirdly, it seems odd to add milk to a meat sauce recipe, but the milk adds a slightly\u00a0sweet and silky texture. There are many theories as to how the addition of\u00a0milk affects the overall results, but don’t question it – just do\u00a0it. And lastly, the Italian (and apparently correct) way of serving pasta is to add par-cooked\u00a0pasta to the ragu\/sauce and simmer it for a few minutes to meld the\u00a0flavors together. It’s worth the extra few minutes\u00a0and makes a huge difference to\u00a0the overall flavor of the dish. (As opposed to the Olive Garden<\/em>-like\u00a0method of first piling the pasta on the plate and then ladling the sauce over it.)<\/p>\n

This ragu is worth the\u00a0effort. I portion the leftover ragu into individual servings and freeze it so that I can enjoy Ragu Bolognese<\/em> for a quick hearty lunch or an easy dinner.<\/p>\n

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Ragu Bolognese<\/strong>\u00a0(adapted from\u00a0Mario Batali’s Ragu Bolognese<\/em><\/a>.)\u00a0<\/strong>The preparation of this ragu is labor intensive so I often prep all of the ingredients (except the onion and garlic) the day before. Otherwise, you will be in the kitchen all day. I prefer to use mezzi rigatoni<\/em>\u00a0pasta as the ragu\u00a0finds its way into the “tube” of the pasta.\u00a0Enjoy and savor every bite!<\/em><\/p>\n

Serves 6 people; \u00a0Prep time – 1 hour; Cook time \u00a0– 2 to 3 hours<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For the Meat Sauce:<\/div>\n