Mama..Bolognese sauce

[jglass]

Can you let me have your recipe for Bolognese sauce please?
I saw Giada making it on The Food Network and I have come to realize her Italian recipes are not as authentic as I thought in the beginning.
Jon and I would love to try the sauce if I can get a recipe from you for it.
Thanks.

[Mama Mangia]

Mine is quite basic - ingredient-wise but it does take a bit of time. Forgive me for not measuring - I usually don't.

Heat your skillet, add your butter and oil (a couple tablespoons of each), heat. Cook a couple slices of bacon and a couple slices of proscuitto (all chopped). Add your chopped celery (1 or 2 ribs), onion (medium) and carrot (2 small)- cook until tender but do not brown. Add your ground meat (beef, veal, pork in equal amounts - 1/3 to ½ lb each ) and brown well. Add fresh minced garlic.

The fun part - you are going to add about 1 ½ c. milk - ¼ c. at a time, giving it a chance to be absorbed. Do not cover. This process will take over an hour.

Once it s all absorbed add salt and pepper and a bit of nutmeg; stir in about 2 cups tomatoes - peeled and chopped or canned and keep the heat low, stirring for another 45 minutes.

Here's the nice part of this recipe - you can cool completely, refrigerate overnight, skim the fat off and heat to use with your pasta.

I prefer to drain my meat well when frying.

Either way is fine.


We are not wine people in my house - many add chicken stock and wine after the meat has browned; some use beef broth, some use heavy cream - it's all preference. You can add tomato paste, or you can add marinara to this as well. You can omit the bacon and proscuitto or just the proscuitto - it's all in what you want.

You will have to play around with this. I do it - I use what I've got when I got it.

Hope this helps.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Wow sounds delicious! I am going to try this out soon!

[Mama Mangia]

Let me know how you like it! And don't be afraid to try it all different ways - using the different broths (if you are using broth) with or without the bacon and/or proscuitto, etc.

[jglass]

This sounds great.
Will be trying it very soon.

What is the difference between ragu and bolognese?

[Mama Mangia]

Ragu is a term for meat-based sauce.

Ragu bolognese is a term for the sauce which is made in Bologna - northern Italy.

Bolognese sauce had very little tomatoes/tomato paste in it compared to other sauces.

And of course - thanks to the "tweaking" by those that don't know any better - bolognese sauce has been changed so much that they don't know what real bolognese is. Bolognese is MEAT-BASED - some ruin it with too many veggies and too many tomatoes, etc.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Your bolognese sounds heavenly, mama! Thanks 4 indulging us w/ your method...

Did anyone see the piece in last month's "Saveur" regarding store-bought "Ragu" spaghetti sauce? It was interesting. Essentially it was "exposing" the use of jarred, store-bought sauce in some homes- usually as a beginning base from which to add ingredients to "make it one's own". I got a chuckle in that it seemed everyone who followed this method seemed to place the empty jars in the trash can in the garage or out in the back-yard before company arrived! I must admit- I too do this w/ certain items- but don't even ask- my secret will go to the grave with me!

Mama- have you ever seen the cookbook from HBO's "The Sopranos"? The recipes to me look mighty fine, but mainly as a fan of the show, I just enjoy the fun & meaty writings & ramblings!

[Mama Mangia]

CAG -

You're welcomed!

I hate phonies - meaning - those that "doctor up" something to make it "their" recipe by using jarred/boxed ingredients. It really ticks me off.

Believe it or not - I have a very busy schedule and I have never been able to see the program The Sopranos. I figure that one of these days I'll be able to pick up a DVD collection of the complete series.

I have not seen their cookbook - I don't pay attention to too many Italian cookbooks because some of them are just not "Italian"! But one of these days I would like to browse that one.

I just love "authentic" Italian recipes put together by and Irishman that visited the country and then took the recipes/ideas home and played with them to make an "authentic" Italian cookbook! What a joke!

Hey - it's Sunday - I won't get started...........

[chubbyalaskagriz]

I was never one for much TV and in Alaska I worked at many locations for about 10 years that didn't have reception at all. So I went years without seeing movies, weekly programs, etc. that were very popular here in the lower-48.

Finally about the last 2-3 years I was up there we finally got satellite tv in even the most remote corners of the state where my work-places were. At the camps I worked at co-workers and members of the camp populations that we served always had boxed-sets of whole seasons of programs that we traded back and forth, and that's how I became introduced to "The Soprano's" and many other shows like "24", "Golden Girls", "NCIS", "Bones", "Frasier", "Will & Grace", "Keeping Up Appearances" , "The Sheild", etc. (I also have complete cherished collections of my three all-time FAV tv shows "All in the Family", "I Love Lucy" and "The Andy Griffth Show".)

It's SO nice to watch several episodes back-to-back on DVD without commercial interruption and without having to delay to learn the outcomes of exciting cliff-hangers!

Anyway- "The Sopranos"? I LOVE the show- and in all honesty, I still have not seen the final season! The 2 cookbooks? I have them both- given to me as gifts, and I truly can't answer about their authenticity since various regional Italian cuisines are not my "first" cuisine, but they are both medium-sized books that I find lavishly photographed and the contributions of tales and recipes by each of the show's characters makes for a really fun read. They belong to that sub-category of cookbook that one can enjoy reading from cover-to-cover much as they would a novel. Also- it helps greatly and adds to the experience to "know" the show and it's characters.

Amazon.com: The Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco: Allen Rucker, Michele Scicolone: Books

Amazon.com: Entertaining with the Sopranos: Carmela Soprano, Allen Rucker, Scicolone, David Chase, Ellen Silverman: Books

[jglass]

Mama I made your sauce and it was wonderful.
I cannot thank you enough.