Slow Bolognese
Recipe by Tobie Puttock from Tobie & Matt
We have all eaten Bolognese sauce a million times and mostly know it as a sauce made of minced beef from the butcher. This is a little more of a grown up’s version of the sauce and has a wonderful depth of flavour to it.
This is purely a recipe for the sauce and can be served with your choice of pastas. During the winter I serve this at fifteen in Melbourne with pappadelle, whilst in Italy I served this with spaghetti chitarra.
We have to make this in two stages, it can be done over two days if you like.
Serves 4
Ingredients
Braised Beef: Part 1
- 300 g Beef shoulder, or other muscly part of the beast
- 1 Onion peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 carrot peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 sticks Celery washed, roughly chopped
- 1 Bay leaf
- 4 peppercorns
- Water
For the sauce: Part 2
- 2 Cloves Garlic peeled and finely sliced
- 1 Onion peeled and finely sliced
- 1 stick Celery washed and finely chopped
- Olive Oil
- 8 Tomatoes quartered and deseeded. Seeds can go to the rubbish
- Chianti classico, or other good red wine
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Sea Salt & freshly ground black pepper
- 12 leaves Sage finely chopped
- Flat-leaf parsley washed and finely sliced
To serve
- 320 g Spaghetti chitarra, or normal spaghetti
- Freshly grated Parmesan
Method
Braised Beef: Part 1
- Put all the ingredients in the first part of the recipe into a large pot, cover with water and bring to the boil, then cover with a lid and reduce the heat to a light simmer.
- Check the meat every ten minutes and make sure the liquid doesn’t evaporate too much. The meat needs to be submerged in the liquid so top it up with water if need be.
- After a couple of hours the meat should be tender and almost falling apart, if it isn’t keep cooking until it does.
- Once the meat is ready remove the pot from the heat and all it to cool almost to room temperature.
For the sauce: Part 2
- While the meat is cooling in its stock you can get the second stage of the sauce on the go. Put the garlic, onion, celery and four tablespoons of olive oil into a clean pot and cook over a gentle heat for about fifteen minutes so the vegetables are soft and without colour.
- Remove the meat from the pot, put it into a bowl and set it aside. Strain the stock and left over vegetables into a clean pot, discard the vegetables.
- Add in the tomato flesh and sauté gently until they start to break down a little and then splash in a little wine to the softened vegetables and once its evaporated pour the strained stock in with the cooking vegetables, turn up the heat and reduce the liquid so it’s the same volume as the cooked meat. Remove the pot from the heat
- Tear the meat into little shreds and add it to the cooling sauce, splash in some extra virgin olive oil and allow it to cool completely.
To serve
- Toss this amazing Bolognese with your choice of pasta and finish with the sage, parsley and a little freshly grated Parmesan. Season to taste and serve immediately.
Notes & Tips
MATT SKINNER'S WINE SUGGESTIONS
Fontodi Chianti Classico 2005 Tuscany, Italy
Giovani Manetti is one of the most highly regarded winemakers in Italy and his Tuscan estate, Fontodi ranks amongst the finest in Italy. It’s Manetti’s attention to detail in the vineyard that sets him apart from the rest. Think dark Morello cherry, leather, aniseed, tobacco, and super well-integrated cedary oak. There’s plenty of lush focussed fruit in the mouth that’s quickly hoovered up and balanced out by a wash of trademark dry grippy Sangiovese tannin. Incredibly versatile and naturally high in both tannin and acidity, Sangiovese has the structure to navigate all but the trickiest textures and still support a range of flavours, sweet and savoury. Bellisimo!
While Fontodi's wines are available in Australia, although you will have to look in order to find them, Australian versions of Sangiovese are well worth a look - try either Pizzini or Coriole, both also around the $30 mark.
