Serious Rag� Bolognese

fx

Thu, 2 Jun 2016 10:59:33 GMT

Try a wee bit of chicken liver in the sauce and yeah shall not be disappointed!

fx

Mon, 21 Mar 2016 14:59:05 GMT

The milk might curdle but it won"t show in the rag�. If this worries you, uncle Francois has a solution. Just remove one cup full of sauce with as much liquid as you manage to, then blitz this until very smooth, and put it back. It will act as a natural thickener.

fx

Sat, 19 Mar 2016 18:50:48 GMT

Well you could definitely use woody herbs (not basil) to increase depth of flavor

fx

Sat, 19 Mar 2016 04:54:31 GMT

Thanks Leticia! Indeed the small piece of chicken liver is a trick used by some Bolognese mamas to increase depth of flavor, well worth trying!

fx

Sat, 19 Mar 2016 04:51:41 GMT

Thanks, glad the recipe worked out good for you!

fx

Wed, 16 Mar 2016 12:06:00 GMT

Thanks, Deb, indeed cast iron is what you want, for instance Le Creuset or other brands. It has to be very heavy, if it looks right but is very light, then it is aluminum and not so good...

fx

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 22:01:54 GMT

No worry! Coming from a former Bolognese I was bracing for a torrent of my-nonna-did-it-different so glad you like the recipe!

fx

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 22:00:46 GMT

Thanks! Just a wee bit of nutmeg...

Mauro Filicori

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 20:58:06 GMT

Sorry, sorry....Re-reading the ingredients list I see that I missed the words......"Few grindings of nutmeg " right after ...." Salt, pepper and ...."

Mauro Filicori

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 20:50:07 GMT

Thrilled to see that your great blog is back.

As a former resident of Bologna I had to go right away to your ragu" ricetta......Question? No nutmeg? Not even a few grinding of Noce Moscata?

fx

Thu, 10 Mar 2016 12:50:02 GMT

Good tip thanks.

fx

Tue, 8 Mar 2016 17:25:33 GMT

Interesting tip indeed!

fx

Tue, 8 Mar 2016 17:24:57 GMT

Thanks a lot for your kinds words!

Rajesh Rao

Tue, 8 Mar 2016 16:03:09 GMT

Wow! Welcome back, FX! That I am overjoyed and overwhelmed, is a very serious understatement :) Stay forever, please!

fx

Tue, 8 Mar 2016 13:04:30 GMT

Yes I think you may be right, this is a time approved version from a place that knows about food!

fx

Tue, 8 Mar 2016 13:01:30 GMT

The second coming has arrived, the end is nigh! Behold two new articles on FXcuisine. Very flattered to have such a devoted Indian reader.

fx

Sun, 6 Mar 2016 13:19:10 GMT

Hello Michael, thanks for a very valid question that had me hit the books last night. Well, in La cucina Bolognese (1996 edition without pictures inside) by no less than Alessandro Molinari Pradelli, the recipe for rag� bolognese lists fegato di pollo as optional ingredient. But in the book I cite in the article, by the Simili sisters, there is a whole chapter about this rag� with a passionate argument in favor of using chicken livers to increase the depth of flavour. If you try it you may be convinced yourself. When publishing articles about traditional italian recipes, I am quite used now to receive comments in the my-grandma-does-it-different style, as regional food identity is very important in Italy and many people conceive canonical recipes as being an approximation of a Platonic ideal written by God in the sky. I am not saying that my grandmas are better than yours, your approach is valid too but this remains a very authentic rendering of the archetypal Bolognese rag�, methinks.

fx

Sat, 5 Mar 2016 20:36:27 GMT

Cinammon in savory sauce is fantastic!

fx, 1

Thu, 3 Mar 2016 12:17:45 GMT

I hope this was a success!

deb

Sun, 21 Feb 2016 17:06:47 GMT

Dennis, looking forward to trying your recipe. I have made many versions over the years and this is intriguing. My question is about the sauce pan that you use. I would like to find a similar one but every search refers to "cast" iron, which I have, but yours does not look to be the same. Can you provide any additional information regarding your pan please? Thank you.

gautam

Tue, 8 Dec 2015 05:47:09 GMT

Hi fx,

Beautifully produced, as usual, as thorough. One comment about the tomatoes: someone (Mark?)on June 28/2009, upthread wrote about his Italian friend"s mother "frying" her tomatoes.

This is also a truc I have learned both from Mario Batali"s ragu, and from the series "Cooking in Russia" to make ragus with great success.

Another lesson learned was that a good ragu is a meat sauce with < a tiny (!!) bit of> tomatoes, not a red tomato sauce with meat, as is the case in America!!

Batali allows the meats to render fat into the sofrito, and to get pretty brown in their own considerable fat! Into this, a tube of Italian tomato paste is added and cooked well, before adding the wine, and the milk.

Cooking In Russia always has the tomatoes, be it concasse or passata, sit on the base of hot fat + stuff for a while, as the lower portion of it becomes dehydrated, cooked and fried into a paste. Only then is the upper layer turned over and mixed into the meat, etc. This reminds me of the Indian way of cooking pureed tomatoes in hot oil to create an intense flavor, before adding spices. Since we did not have the advantage of either canned tomato paste or passata/puree, only the fresh puree or concasse was available, with its greater water content. Hence, this device, most probably. It also allows for a more intense red color to develop.

Thanks for all your excellent tutorials.

Rajesh Rao

Sat, 17 Oct 2015 18:30:24 GMT

Now I have made this the 7th time. Still bubbling on the range with 2 more hrs to go. it"s a sure fire classic like all of FX"s...

Only sad thing is that FX has gone awol. Wonder when the resurrection will happen. For foodies, it will no less than a second coming!

Larry j

Sat, 10 Oct 2015 14:49:03 GMT

2 time we made this fantastic recipe!, 1st time exactly as described, last nite I threw in 1 cinnamon stick & 1 Serrano , just tasted and love it! Why not?
Serving 8 this eve(made enuf for 12) with Tuscan bean soup/Italian sausage/& kale
Tummy& thx larry in ohio

Bill

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 05:16:22 GMT

I am making your recipe now and am very excited! I don"t like chicken livers but am trusting your expertise. I am also trying it in a crock pot, we"ll see how it comes out.

thanks for your efforts

Rita coufal

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 02:53:48 GMT

Very inspirational presentation and love the clear and concise directions. My ragu is at this moment in the finishing stages and tastes fabulous, I keep snaking a taste. You are a culinary gem, grazie Mille.

Leticia

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:27:16 GMT

So glad I came across your site. Loved it so far, love your pictures and your simple approach to food. Thanks for sharing this with us. And for the first time in my life I have heard about chicken liver in bolognese sauce. Living and learning!

Paul

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:12:57 GMT

Hi Mr FX,I cook a lot and have experimented many times with versions of this sauce. Several of my own interpretations mixed in there.I have to say I"ve looked for a more authentic recipe many times and having stumbled across this am chuffed to bits.It"s really, really good. Thank you, I really appreciate it.To those who speak of tweaking this, and "adding a twist to that", may I just say some things are simply best left alone.Paul.

Caroline

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:56:16 GMT

Hi Serena, I really ejeoynd this recipe first because I love bolognese and second because I learned something new. I didn"t realize the history or the important tip about cooking in the oven as if it were a stew. I"ve never used cumin and cinnamon in sauce before. Would you kindly email me the full recipe? Thanks for sharing this. Warmly, Stephanie

Pam

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 20:23:34 GMT

Hi Mr. Fx!
I"m planning to make your Ragu Bolognese for the first time and when I look at your phot that has everything prepped and ready to cook, see see fresh herbs.. rosemary theyme and basil I think. These herbs are not in your ecipe list so I"m writing to ask if I should use them?
Thanks,
Pam who lives in the middle of nowhere.

Mephistophiles

Sat, 4 Feb 2012 11:34:03 GMT

Wonderful...I"m making this tonight again for guests.

sue lyon

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:53:40 GMT

i am afraid of adding milk to a dish that contains tomatoes, afraid it will curdle the sauce. i just made a big pot of ragu tho i added sage, rosemary, also some ground fennel and much more garlic left out the chicken livers but will try that next time. tell me about adding milk. i will if you think it will not ruin the sauce.

Ryan

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:26:46 GMT

Also - I Marcella Hazan says to add salt right after you add the meat to extract its juices, which may be why I did not since I thought the goal was to keep them in for this recipe.

Ryan

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:24:19 GMT

Hello! First off, amazing site, thank you for your effort.

I made this the other night, and it was good but I think my seasoning is off, most notably the meat. In some of my favorite local resturants who do it right, I notice when I bite into the meat a rush of flavor, sort of like the smells you get when cooking the onion/celery/carrot, burst out. I had no bursting, just rather bland meat. The sauce itself was rather good, but my guess is I seasoned to late.

So my question is, at what stages do you add salt? I have read that adding salt when cooking onions can make them tougher (so I didnt). Since making this other recipes have said add a large pinch (about a teaspoon) either right before or after you add the meat (I did not do this ).

Also - which cuts of meat are best for this? I hate buying the pre packaged stuff.

Thank You!

Michael Near

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:21:03 GMT

I lived in Bologna for a while and ate at several dozen friends homes. All of the ladies I know do NOT use chicken liver in the Bolognese sauce. Yet you call it essential. I am curious where you got that from????? On the whole your recipe looks close to authentic but not spot on sorry to say. Go to Bologna and ask around, I think you will not find chicken liver in the sauce.

Jenny

Fri, 2 Dec 2011 14:26:28 GMT

Hi FX, Wow! I"ve just stumbled upon your website whilst looking for an authentic Bolgnese ragu. . . Superb!! The recipe, your knowledge, passion and attention to detail has truly inspired me. I knew chicken livers were part of the recipe so I added them to my search criteria and thankfully found your site, I love your profile (especially loved the last picture!) and will be making regular jaunts to your culinary world from now on. To those who expressed how terribly difficult it must be to get chicken livers in boring old England, I got mine in Waitrose! My, how times have changed, eh? And to the guy who disputed the oil & butter theory - heat two pans, throw a knob of butter in one and another in the other with a drop of oil and watch! Funny how some people tend to call anything they don"t understand myths. Loved the next guy"s answer, by the way. Kudos!

C Giunta

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:44:41 GMT

At LAST an autentico Ragu Bolognese online. Been doing almost exactly the same for years but it"s nice to see someone who gets it.

marton

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:25:52 GMT

eric!

That is not correct. Mixture of fluids can and DO have different boiling/melting points. Just think of your antifreeze fluids which are alcohol(ethylene-glycol probably) and water mixtures, also a bottle of vodka won"t freeze like a bottle of water below 0 Celsius.

Salty water has a lower freezing point and a higher boiling point than regular distilled water.How would you explain then why water doesn"t boil at 100 degrees Celsius when I add salt to it? Going by your example water should boil and salt should remain if I keep the temperature at 100 Celsius.

I don"t really want to dig deep in this matter here, but temperature is basically motion on molecular level, the less motion, the less energy(motion energy) the molecule has.

So you apply heat, which creates more motion in the molecules which is transferred when they collide, so they lose some motion energy every collision. Oil molecules act as a "rubber wall" for butter molecules which keep bouncing into them losing energy.

Basically a molecule burns when it collides with an oxigen molecule with enough motion energy to break its peaceful state, separate the bond between the atoms and form a new ones. You supply this motion energy via heat.

This is a basic explanation not a scientific one, but the sum is that when oil is added to butter, the one of them acts as a buffer to soak up the energy of the other molecules(via colliding) and it does not let them aquire enough energy to cause a reaction with oxygen hence not burning. And since one of them needs considerably more energy to "burn" it keeps the mixture HOT and on a molecular level the stable.

Also there might be some hydrogen-bond stabilization and double-bond stuff in play which I don"t know about. But the result is the same, oil+butter mix can take up more heat.

By the way awesome recipe. Just WOW. All my life I only had ragu bolognese made from powder, but after this there is no going back. Good thing I live in Hungary and we use chicken liver for some traditional dishes usually in large quantities like half a kilogram or more.
At the market everyone looked at me like I was an idiot for asking for two chicken livers which cost less than the nylon bag they gave it in.

Cheers!

eric

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:12:12 GMT

Thanks for sharing the recipe!

But I"m pretty sure that whole "add oil to butter so the butter won"t burn" thing is just a myth. It certainly makes no sense at all. If the milk solids in butter burn at 350 F, it doesn"t matter how much oil you add. As soon as they get to 350, they burn. It"s like: humans get burned well below 200 F, but a good robot can survive 500 F easily. That doesn"t mean that if you add a bunch of robots to a room full of humans that the humans will suddenly become fireproof.

Probably a lot healthier to mix butter with oil, though!

Judy Heisserer

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 06:14:13 GMT

I found your artical very, very intersting and will be looking forward to making your sauce. I enjoy making my homemade pastas and am always interested in other ideas. My husband enjoys anything made Italian. We are more use to the red sauces so this will be a new adventure. Do you use more red sauces or more white sauces in your region? Thanks for taking for sharing your information. A friend and I teach pasta classes as best as we can and all always are amazed with what you can do. I have had my Aatlas pasta hand crank for more than 30 years and it is still in good working form.
Again thanks for sharing!!! Judy

fx

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 22:18:17 GMT

Thanks for your kind words!

william

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 06:22:33 GMT

the recipe sounds awesome and authentic most people are making chili and add cream, keep up the good work. bolongna would be proud

fx

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:50:50 GMT

Don, if you are making ravioli, the best sauce is no sauce. Perhaps a few sage leaves gently fried in melted butter, but raviolis with proper stuffing suffer from sauce. Arrabiata is from the South of Italy, not many stuffed pasta there, this is a sauce for macaroni. Good luck!

don siranni

Tue, 9 Nov 2010 00:31:33 GMT

Francois,It took me two years but today I finally did it!It still has another hour to go in the dutch oven.Along with your lasagna post using it,I"m planning to freeze some for my first ravioli mission.I made,as you did, a double batch.My new question is concerning the best sauce(if any at all) to make for the raviolis. Is the "all aribbatta" sauce that I really like from elsewhere on FX,a good one to use for ravioli,,or maybe another more traditional-or appropriate one. Thanks

maria

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 19:24:07 GMT

ouh, l� j"ai ador�, vraiment trop bon. quoique un peu difficile parfois de lire en anglais. Felicitations pour votre site. un salud d"am�rique du sud

kaj

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:07:31 GMT

Thank you so much for this recipe. I"ve been cooking bolognese for 15 years and it always had the smell of "meat". Your recipe had me create the best bolognese i have ever tasted (and i"ve lived in italy for a year). Thank you and I will certainly always remember this recipe!

rusty shackleford

Fri, 14 May 2010 11:22:48 GMT

Hey I need some advice on this recipe. I did what you said and waited until I couldn"t smell the wine anymore and then added the milk(half and half). However the milk curdled when I did this. How can I prevent curdling next time?

fo sho yo yo

Mon, 3 May 2010 08:16:14 GMT

SINNER. You put bay leaves, I can see them in one of the photos! This is not Ragu Bolognese!

Al Martino

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:23:52 GMT

Buonissimo. Ho provato molte versioni di questo rag� di Bologna. Questa � la pi� autentica.. Gratzie Mille

Jirina

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 06:50:08 GMT

Hello from Prague, Czech Republic. I tried your serious ragu recipe on a very serious occasion: the first dinner at home with my daughter and her loved one! It was excellent, many thanks to you!

Ken Matley

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 05:27:25 GMT

First, let me say that since I found your website a couple of months ago I have been working my way through your recipes. My results have ranged from excellent to spectacular. I particularly appreciate that you do not spell out every recipe in detail, as I encourages me to cook, �beyond the recipe.�

I made your ragu Bolognese in January and loved it! I live alone for the moment so nobody else was available to critique it, but I was completely taken by the recipe and by the process. As I am a complete hepatophobe (I was raised on a Nevada cattle ranch where liver (overcooked and completely nasty) was a regular item on the dinner table. For 17 years I suffered, �how do you know you don"t like it if you don"t try it.� So I"d try it once again, gag, and leave the table.), I left out the chicken liver, but that has been bothering me ever since. Because your advice has always yeilded excellent results, I decided to give it a go.

Sunday I made a double batch of your recipe. After completing the vegetable garnish I divided the meat (beef and pork from the farmers" market) into two batches. I took a bit of the veggies and oil from the garnish and in a separate pan sauted about 1 1/2 chicken livers. When they were cooked I pureed them with a bit of chicken broth. After the meat was browned, instead of deglazing just with wine as you described, I did a multiple deglazing a la Paul Bertolli, beginning with the wine, followed by three more deglazings with chicken broth. In one batch I used only wine and chicken broth, and in the other the chicken broth-liver puree was used for one of the deglazings.

When all was done. The ragu without the chicken livers was a knock-your-socks-off marvel, with incredible depth of flavor. The ragu with the chicken livers was even richer, but also had a very faint�but unmistakable�aftertaste of liver. At first I thought it was OK, and ate a plate of penne with the liver-included ragu, but as the evening progressed the liver aftertaste did not go away, until by bedtime I was picturing giving the dogs Kibble Bolognese in the morning. Instead, I packaged up the liver ragu to give to friends. Probably nobody but me would be put off by it, but as I mentioned above I was liver-traumatized at an early age.

The point of this whole rant is that, although the liver flavor might melt into the background for most people, those of us who are hypersensitive to it will still detect it in the finished ragu. For me, it doesn"t matter, for without the liver this is one of the best things ever to come out of my kitchen!

I am eagerly anticipating trying the rest of your recipes over the next few months.