The Perfect Bolognaise
Update: We made this again and this time I made a few changes. Firstly the tomato compote; last time I used fresh tomatoes and I just didnt think that the flavour was quite up to spec. This time I used whole tinned tomatoes which I squeezed the juice and seeds out off into a seive. This I passed through the seive, collected the juice and reduce in a saucepan by about half. I added this into the compote following the recipe below after I had put the flesh of the tomatoes in and heated. This made the tomato compote just sing. I also strengthed the flavour with the frying which really made it just sing. So much, in fact that I will make a relish with the compote in future.
Also this time I made the seperate components well in advance. Two days in advance. This I stored in the fridge and really allowed the flavours to develop to their fullest.
Another change was that while I doubled the recipe, I changed the meat to be 40% pork chunks, 25% beef mince, and 25% lamb mince.
Heston Blumenthal’s tv show, In Search Of Perfection only recently became part of my viewing selection when the latest season of American Idol finished, so I only saw a few episodes. There was the steak one, the fish and chips, and the spag bol.
I watched this episode about three times over a few weeks to make sure I truly understood some of the principals at work but as they say, watching is not the same as doing. So I set out to do.
What started out as a meal intended to make the best of a bottle of wine I had been given, a Rockburn Pinot Noir 2006, for 3 people, became a marathon effort for 10 so required some juggling. Also it took two days as half the guests suddenly could not come. But the pause did not seem to hurt the sauce.
As you will see, there are 4 steps to the process. First there is the onions which is pretty easy. And yes, these do brown up best in a stainless steel saucepan. Then comes the soffrito. The carrots, onions and celery. If you are doubling the recipe than I suggest you cook these in two batches otherwise they will not brown, but rather just sort of stew in their own juices. I also recommend a very small dice to help the process along. Browning the meat is next and again, hot pan, and if doubling, brown in batches. Finally comes the tomato compote.
I skipped the “frying” stage, and sorely wished that I had not. The compote just did not seem to punch above its weight and I ended up dumping in loads of tomato paste to bulk up the flavour. Also the tomatoes I used seemed to lack any flavour so depending on the tomatoes I can find next time I might follow my gut instinct and used tinned. If I do used tinned tomatoes then I will try and remove the seeds because then can turn bitter. I will also drain off a lot of the juice and try to reduce that down in a saucepan.
The whole experience was worth the effort. There were several comments of “Like nothing I have ever had before,” and that was the point. It really glammed up a traditional average dish with little in the way of expectations.
Oh and there are no photos because I just plain forgot.
Ingredients
For the sauce base:
125ml extra virgin olive oil
250 gram boned and minced oxtail
250 grams pork shoulder, in 1cm cubes
375 ml oaked chardonnay
1 star anise
2 large onions (about 450 grams), finely sliced
2 large cloves of garlic
2 large onions (about 450 grams), finely diced
3 large carrots (about 400 grams), finely diced
3 celery stalks (about 125 grams), finely diced
250 mls whole milk
For the tomato compote:
975 grams ripe tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
200 mls extra virgin olive oil
3 large cloves of garlic
1 large onion (about 225 grams), finely diced
1 heaped teaspoon coriander seeds
1 star anise
3 cloves
4-5 drops of tobasco
4-5 drops of Thai fish sauce
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 heaped tablespoon tomato ketchup
30 mls sherry vinegar
1 bouquet garni (consisting of 7 sprigs of fresh thyme and 1 fresh bay leaf)
To finish the spagetti Bolognese
1 batch of tomato compote
100 grams of good spagetti per person
sherry vinegar to taste
Parmesan cheese
1 bouquet garni ( in a sheet of leek wrap 6 tarragon leaves, 4 sprigs of parsley and the leaves from the top of a bunch of celery)
unsalted butter
extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Preparing the sauce base
1. Place a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Crush the star anise and bag it up in a square of muslin. Add this to the pan, along with 25ml oil and the sliced onions. Cook for 20 minutes, or until the onions are soft and caramelised, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, preheat another large, heavybottomed frying pan over a low heat for 5 minutes. Mince the garlic. Pour 50ml oil into the pan, then tip in the garlic, onions, carrots and celery and cook this soffritto over a medium- low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the raw onion smell has gone. Transfer the soffritto to a bowl and wipe clean the pan.
3. Place the pan over a high heat for 10 minutes. Pour in 50ml olive oil and wait until it starts smoking: it must be hot enough so the meat browns rather than stews. Add the cubed pork and the minced oxtail. Stir until browned all over. (To brown properly, all the meat has to touch the surface of the pan. If it doesn’t, do it in batches.) Tip the browned meat into a sieve over a bowl (to allow the fat to drain off), then transfer the meat to a large pot or casserole. Deglaze the pan by adding a splash of wine, bringing it to the boil, and then scraping the base of the pan to collect all the tasty bits stuck to the bottom. Once the liquid has reduced by half, pour it into the large pot containing the meat.
4. Remove the bag of star anise from the caramelised onions and then tip the onions into the large pot containing the meat. Add the remaining wine and deglaze the frying pan (as in step 3). When the wine has reduced by half, pour it into the large pot. Add the soffritto to the pot as well.
5. Place the pot of Bolognese over a very low heat. Pour in the milk and enough water to cover entirely, and simmer very gently without a lid for 6 hours, stirring occasionally. At all times the ingredients should be covered by the liquid, so be prepared to add more water. (Don’t worry if the milk becomes slightly granular: it won’t affect the end result.)
Preparing the tomato compote
1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Fill a large bowl with ice-cold water. Remove the cores from the tomatoes with a paring knife. Blanch the tomatoes by dropping them into the boiling water for 10 seconds and then carefully removing them to the bowl of ice-cold water. Take them out of the water immediately and peel off the split skins. (If the tomatoes are not ripe enough, make a cross with a sharp knife in the underside of each, to encourage the skins to come away. They can be left in the hot water for an extra 10 seconds or so, but it’s important that they don’t overheat and begin to cook.)
2. Cut the tomatoes in half vertically. Scoop out the seeds and the membrane with a teaspoon, over a chopping board. Roughly chop the seeds and membrane, then tip them into a sieve over a bowl. Sprinkle over the salt and leave for 20 minutes to extract their juice, after which you can discard the seeds and membrane, reserving only the juice. 3. Roughly chop the tomato flesh and set aside.
4. Meanwhile, place a large, heavy-bottomed pan over a low heat. Add 100ml of the olive oil. Mince the garlic, then put it into the pan along with the onion. Cook for 10–15 minutes, until soft but not coloured.
5. Crush the coriander and put it in a muslin bag, along with the star anise and the cloves. Add it to the softened onions and garlic.
6. Take the juice drawn from the tomato seeds and membrane and add it to the onions and garlic along with the tomato flesh.
7. Add the Tabasco, fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, tomato ketchup and sherry vinegar. Drop in the bouquet garni and cook over a low heat for 2 hours.
8. To add a roasted note to the compote, add the remaining oil and turn up the heat to high. Fry the compote for 15–20 minutes, stirring regularly to make sure it doesn’t catch, then pour off any olive oil not absorbed by the compote. Set aside a little to coat the cooked pasta. ( The rest can be stored in a jar and makes a great base for a salad dressing. The compote itself will keep in the fridge for a week.)
Cooking the Spagetti Bolognese
1. Stir the tomato compote (including the bag of spices) into the Bolognese sauce and cook over a very low heat for a final 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil for the pasta. For every 100g of pasta, you’ll need 1 litre of water and 10g salt. (If you don’t have a large enough pan it’s essential to use two pans rather than overcrowd one.)
3. Put the spaghetti into the pan, give it a stir, then bring back to the boil and cook until the pasta is just tender but with a bite. Check the cooking time on the packet and use that as a guideline, but taste it every few minutes as this is the only way to judge when the pasta is ready.
4. Before taking the Bolognese sauce off the heat, check the seasoning and then add some sherry vinegar (tasting as you go) to balance the richness of the sauce. Add a generous grating of Parmesan (but not too much, as it can make the sauce overly salty) and remove the sauce from the heat. Take out the original thyme and bay bouquet garni and the bag of spices. Replace these with the parsley and tarragon bouquet garni, stir in 100g of unsalted butter and let the sauce stand for 5 minutes.
5. Once the pasta is cooked, drain, and rinse it thoroughly with hot water. Return to the pot to warm through. (Since the ragù is not going to be mixed with the pasta, it needs to be rinsed to prevent it becoming starchy and sticking together.) Add a generous knob of butter (about 50g per 400g of pasta) and coat with olive oil and the reserved oil from the final frying of the compote. To serve, wind portions of pasta around a carving fork and lay them horizontally in wide, shallow bowls. Top with the Bolognese sauce and finish with a grating of Parmesan.
This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 6:58 am and is filed under Beef, pasta, pork. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.