Some readers have commented that Italians would argue fervently over how to make such and such sauce/ragù and it IS true. The other day when I was at a nearby shop, the salesgirls were argueing over whether onion and garlic go into the Sugo all'Amatriciana (different from Sugo Matriciana Romano) and the shop owner asked for my opinion and I answered: Neither! (Correct answer!) I was flattered that they asked me because they can tell from my accent that I am not a native speaker of Italian. FYI: spaghetti from Gragnano, guanciale (pork jowl) from Amatrice, pecorino from Amatrice, San Marzano tomatoes, white wine, olive oil, peperoncino, salt, pepper. However, it is a lot more fun to argue over recipes than politicians!
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Any tips for making this in an electric pressure cooker? If so, your recipe be appreciated.
GASP!
I've made this for years following Marcela's recipe exactly. It's consistently excellent, but you can cut a few corners and put this on the table in two hours by (1) using "meatloaf mix" (ground beef, ground veal, ground pork) as sold in most grocery stores, which becomes tender more quickly than ground beef, and (2) preheating the milk and wine before adding them in their proper sequence (they cook away faster when preheated). The result is almost indistinguishable from the all-afternoon version, and makes this a weekday option.
Funny it is pictured with thick fettuccine and not Marcella's beloved tagliatelle. One thing that has always troubled me about this recipe is that she cooks the ragu until it is dry. Ragu/tagliatelle is far more enjoyable when it is quite moist.
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I am not sure what the criteria were for awarding Hazan's recipe the "gold standard" (and I am not sure what that even means). But I have been using Mark Bittman's recipe from How to Cook Everything for years now, and it has never failed me. The key to any good ragu is simply to take your time -- and maybe use a combination of ground meats.
Veal adds gelatine which help the texture, but not flavour.
One Italian once suggested to me that you want to start a civil war, ask a group of Bolognese how to make their city's eponymous sauce. Rows will immediately break out over when to add milk, or is it cream, pork/beef/veal, chicken livers, red or white wine, tomatoes - and tomato paste get pretty heated in an instant. Every family has its own variation, the way 'nonna' taught them.
Of course my Spanish father in law said Paella is the same, while the bitterness of the Irish argument over whether colcannon should be made with kale or cabbage can be quite surprising.
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My husband has been making this for probably 40 years. MY recipe has been a traditional tomato meat sauce. Both delicious and practical when raising children and working. And now great to have in freezer for an easy yet gourmet meal. Most of our contemporaries don't cook or entertain at home anymore so this is a real treat. Hope the younger readers take note.
My late wife's parents were Italian, and they made what they called the "authentic" red sauce almost every Sunday for dinner. They were absolutely convinced that their way was the only way. It was about as authentic Italian as lox and bagels. They would have rejected Marcella's recipe as a total fraud and probably accused her of being Chinese. I doubt that there's anything more contentious than red sauce, or "Sunday gravy" as they called it. The repetitiousness of the same thing over and over finally caused me to stop attending the weekly ritual of self-complements of, "best I ever made." It was at least 10 years before I could look at a plate of spaghetti and red sauce, with or without meat, and not start feeling sick to my stomach. For me, it's not worth the time and trouble of making my own sauce, as much as I like to cook. I'll just open a jar and be done with it. Maybe add some fresh basil, hot pepper and a good amount of grated cheese to mask the flavor.
This recipe is wonderful and does deserve the Gold Standard for meat sauce BUT Marcella’s very best recipe is her pesto sauce. It’s simple but absolutely THE BEST! what makes it special is soaking the basil in ice water and the butter. I don’t know why anyone would buy pesto after making this recipe. My favorite is to add seared rare scallops on top of the pesto linguine. Delicious!
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This is one of my very favorite recipes, so I was disappointed that the Times didn't add an important clarification for home cooks (as Hazan is extremely reliable but no hand-holder). If this sauce is to resemble anything you would eat in Bologna, the celery, carrot and onion must be very finely diced, so that the vegetables almost bind with the meat and add to the dense texture. When I've done it this way friends from Bologna have told me that I came up with a very credible version!
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Someone silly has mentioned that Marcella Hazan's recipe for "ragù alla bolognese" is not the Gold Standard because she adapted it to what is available in American markets. According to the recipe in "Le Ricette Regionali Italiane" (Italian regional cooking recipes), there are no ingredients that an American cook would not be able to find...it's a little different: pork or veal and pancetta, a little broth, meat extract...but essentially a very similar recipe. Marcella Hazan just did some adapting to what she prefers, as do cooks all over Italy and that is why the above Italian cook book is three inches thick and includes many other regional ragù recipes. PS: I think Marcella Hazan's recipe can be rightly call the gold standard if cooks are using it all over the USA.
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A recipe that looks appealing and that I will actually try. Thank you!
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Why is this recipe different from the one in "The Classic Italian Cookbook?" Different quantities, different proportions.
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The foregoing comment appears more than once today. I understand that recipes evolve over time, but the Times owes its readers an explanation when it cites a book and then publishes a different recipe. Frankly the editing of recipes in the Times is not up to the standards of the rest of the paper. And unlike the rest of the paper corrections, notes, explanations etc never appear in response to queries. As yet another comment says, it is time for the Times to step up its game in the food department volume is one thing quality is another. I take every Times recipe with a grain of salt and regularly expect to annotate them to get them right Where is the Public Editor when we need her.
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The source for this recipe may be Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking 1992
I agree with Judy. This recipe looks identical to the one I just made from "Essentials.....". It was delicious.
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Like it or not but Italians do NOT use butter in their kitchens except for pastry.
So using a stick of butter in a Bolognese sauce is an absolute nonsense.
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Totally not true François! The more to Northern Italy one goes, the more butter is used in cooking, and not just in desserts. My Italian regional cookbook, Le Ricette Regionali Italiane, has various recipes for ragù including ragù alla bolognese and it has butter, not a stick though!
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You are wrong. Northern Italians absolutely use butter. Butter does not belong only to the French.
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Sorry, Italians definitely use butter, particularly in Emilia Romagna. Its foolish to make categorical statements like that.
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Let us not forget Victor Hazan for transcribing his wife's recipes, and committing them to print in a very lucid manner.
Anybody that has done any cooking knows that not all cookbooks are written well. Many times there are omissions, contradictions, and wording that does not yield good results.
Marcella and Victor Hazan's recipes are among the most well written.
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I've been making Marcella Hazan's "Meat Sauce, Bolognese Style" ever since I got my copy of "The Classic Italian Cookbook" in 1979.
In her recipe, page 128 (boy, is that book beat-up and food-stained), the proportions are different from the ones the recipe you printed today.
She lists only 2 Tb. each of chopped onion, celery and carrot; 1/2 cup of milk; 2 cups canned Italian tomatoes. There is no butter for tossing.
Her sauce is much meatier, but interestingly I've always made it more like yours by increasing the amount of vegetables: I put a whole medium onion, a carrot, and a stalk of celery, cut in chunks, in the food processor and pulse them until they're fairly finely chopped before sautéing.
About the milk: My husband is a rabbi and many of our friends keep kosher. Simmering meat in milk is the ultimate kashrut no-no. Leaving out this step (and using only olive oil) doesn't seem to hurt. Now that I'm re-inspired by your recipe, I'll try unsweetened soy milk or almond milk.
I also make a veggie version with mushrooms. When the onion-carrots-celery are almost soft, I chop 1 lb cremini mushrooms in the processor and add them instead of the meat. It really works. Dried porcini and their soaking liquid makes it even better. And a pinch of thyme.
Yes, a double recipe—meat or mushroom—and freezing at least half of it. A little goes a long way, and it's very handy to have around.
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the milk contains enzymes that change the texture of the meat - you won't get them in soy milk or almond milk.
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Marcella's bolognese recipe appears with small differences in some of her printed works. Sometimes the milk goes in before the wine, sometimes after. The amounts of ingredients get jiggled. That said, it works all ways, and is ultimately adaptable to jiggling as she herself suggests in notes. Marcella taught me how to cook by smell not timers, something I am trying to teach my son, and that ingredients are flexible in many dishes. I believe her first cookbook is the ultimate gift to someone starting to cook. I have read it cover to cover on more than one occasion.
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This is a comment related to "her famous (and contentious red sauce".
By coincidence, in early September 2013, I visited the village where my paternal grandparents were born, Palma Campania, which is located about 20 miles from Naples and on the backside of Vesuvius. I was taken to marvelous little, rustic, farm-restaurant, "Il Cerqueto" in Marzano di Nola (about the middle of nowhere) and was served this delicious pasta dish (along with other great dishes) with a red sauce like I never had ever tasted (and all 4 of my grandparents were born in Italy and so I had many an authentic pasta with red sauce meal). It baffled me, it was so good, yet I never had any red sauce even close.
When I read Mark Bittman's September 29, 2013 article about Marcella Hazan and her "contentious" sauce, I immediately said, "That's it, that's the recipe." I immediately got a can of San Marzano tomatoes and cooked up the sauce and feasted on some pasta.
Don't understand why it is contentious. In Italy, each household and restaurant has its own particular way of cooking and each says his/hers is the only right way and everyone else does it wrong.
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I make this sauce every week or two - and have for years - and my family never tires of it. Don't be put off by the time required; it's still a brilliant sauce at three hours. Assemble it and then just let it sit on the lowest possible heat. Stir it now and again - then viola!
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Maybe violins and cellos rather than a viola...
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As all other Marcella Hazan's recipes - whether it is for dishes or for the basics (pasta, pizza dough, béchamel sauce) - this one is magical. But having learned my Bolognese by living with an Italian family in the middle of the Apennines, between Bologna and Florence, I must mention another secret ingredient - fegato, otherwise known as liver. I usually make a huge amount of Bolognese, often with 3 pounds of minced meet (must have some fat), lots of carrots and celery, onions, a few garlics, one can of tomatoes, salt, pepper. Sometimes I cheat and add some Barilla Tomato & Basil sauce in. I do not use milk or wine in the sauce. But when onions, garlic, celery and carrots have softened, and I have browned the meat, I add a container of chicken livers. And when they are so soft and crumbled that they cannot be even recognized or distinguished from the meat, I add tomatoes and Barilla sauce. Then I let that mixture simmer for a few hours, covered, on a very low heat. The livers add sweetness and depth of flavor to the sauce. And no one would ever know that they are there.
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Mario Batali has a video on youtube showing how to make Bolognese. Very similar to this one and turns out great. Check it out if you like to learn from videos.
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Mario Batali is dead to me.
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...And dead to the culinary world
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When you are lactose intolerant, the door to great food becomes very narrow.
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This recipe turns out just as great when eliminating the milk and butter. I do it all the time using just extra virgin Italian olive oil from Liguria. My son and I are milk intolerant, not for butter though, and while I know that butter is used more often in Northern Italian cuisine, I live in Central Italy where olive oil is king.
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We substitute Lactaid and it works out quite well.
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During one memorable evening at Studio Kitchen (https://www.studiokitchen.com/), we asked Philadelphia’s Master Chef, Shola Olunloyo, what is his ultimate comfort food when he cooks alone and away from an audience. He said in his distinctive voice, “Pasta Bolognese – every time!”
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All sauces should be used sparingly on pasta. You do not drown pasta with any kind of sauce. That is just a basic in Italian kitchens if the cook knows what they are doing. Drowning pasta and serving giant portions of food "abundanza" or abundance, is not Italian. Or very smart!! It is something that started in America where abundance and filling one's plate with out sized portions was considered getting your money's worth at a restaurant.
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I love Italian-style meat sauce, made in any combination of beef, veal and sausage, but with only a minimum of tomatoes. Rather that wasting it on noodles, it goes better on boiled or lightly fried potatoes, or as a layer on the crust of an eviscerated French baguette.
Doesn't have to be an eviscerated French baguette. I will be pilloried for saying this, but I used to dip slices of Wonder Bread into the newly completed vat of tomato sauce at my house when I was a kid. Crusty bread, French or Italian, was used at the dinner table to sop up the extra after the pasta was gone from the plate. Not exactly classy table manners, but "gravy" (yes, Italians also call their tomato sauce "gravy") was never wasted.
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Italians do not call their meat sauce "gravy", they call it "ragù".
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Grew up in an Italian-American family. Grandparents came from Sicily and Naples. I never heard the term "gravy." I-A friends whose grandparents came from the north never heard of gravy either. Was/is "gravy" a regional thing in the US?
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Great! Now, where is the Instant Pot version?
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My question exactly.
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Follow all steps up to the long simmer in the pot, and then set the high pressure timer to 25 minutes. Natural release.
Pizzoccheri: Classic Italian Cooking volume 2.
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Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
how can i adapt this to an instant pot?
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Why would you bother? Cook it on the stove and let the whole house smell like Italy. NYT (Melissa Clark?) has Instapot recipe for this, but its not worth the bother to save 45 minutes of cooking time.
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Not clear the author read Marcella's book. In it, Marcella admits that she adapted what, in her view were, traditional recipes, to ingredients available in the US and added US ingredients not traditionally used in reverse e.g., shallots. By definition, this can't be the "gold standard" as it is an adulterated ragu recipe. The notion that some people like to simmer it for four hours and some for five could use some analysis beyond the anecdote. Is the extra hour actually helpful? Does it depend on the quality of the ingredients? What if one used veal vs. pork and got all that scrumptious collagen would the extra hour help or hurt? Silliness at the NY Times...
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Take it from an Italian: it's how you like it. I make my sauce the way I learned from my Northern Italian mother, who had to learn how to make "red sauce" for the Southern Italian man she married. My mother's family came from so far north she'd never eaten red sauce. Anyway, here's the deal with long-cooking tomato sauces made with meat: look at the color. Tomato sauce starts out bright red. After a few hours, four sounds about right, it turns this orangey-brown color. Hard to describe, but you'll know it when you see it. Do it enough times, and you'll automatically say: 'it's sauce now.' The longer it cooks, the deeper the color gets. Taste it at all the stages and you'll figure out how you, personally, like it. You may even like it better at two hours. For what it's worth, my sauce gets a minimum of six. But, I don't crumble the meat--the tomatoes cook with whole meatballs and sausages. Perhaps the flavor melding takes longer this way.
I find no particular difference in texture with longer simmering, just more intense flavor.
Among Italians, sauce can be like religion. For instance, these vegetables in her sauce? Heresy. Even though I'm sure it's quite delicious, I won't convert. I maintain a secular stance on sauce: I keep my beliefs to myself. Just a word to the wise if you find yourself discussing red sauce with an Italian. It can get ugly.
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My first generation Italian-American father cooked his sauce exactly as you describe. We don't. That was then, and this is now. But your comment brought back the sight of that pot on the stove all afternoon.
come on, NYT cooking editors: you just had a bunch of articles about the instant pot. instead of recommending 4 hours on a burner, why not also give us the time to cook in an instant pot? i'd estimate 40-60 mins for this recipe.
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"Like varnish rather than paint." That comment is by a pro.
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It struck me the same way. A great observation.
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You know, that's cool, but we all already know this. Anybody that cooks knows Marcella. This is a standard. If youre going to write in a food column you need to up your game. I'm saying this because I want the Food section of the New York Times to be a leader, a leader in sustainability, to examine how they are contributing to the problem,
a leader in equal rights for all people interested in food and the emblematic disparity between the rich and the rest of the people of New
York. Step up to the plate New York Times.
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I did not know this.
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Sorry Mello, this article is about a really good meat sauce, not social justice. This is the food section in the Times, not Mother Jones. Yes, there is a place in the food section for articles dealing with sustainability and other issues dealing with the effects on food, dining and society. This article is not that place.
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Yeah, um, or keep printing great recipes like this for the vast majority of us who aren’t cool Brooklyn hipster foodies.
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This is the recipe I've used for decades. Once you taste his bolognese you'll throw rocks at other ones.
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it's a 'her'
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Throwing rocks at sauce. Sounds like a Trumpian recipe technique
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Her bolognese - but otherwise yes indeed.
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