| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 4 hr 5 min |
| Active: | 15 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 pound pancetta, finely diced
- 4 ounces trimmed chicken livers, finely diced, optional, but recommended
- 2 small onions, finely chopped
- 2 small ribs celery, finely chopped, with leafy tops, chopped
- 1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 small sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
- 2 fresh bay leaves
- 2 1/2 pounds ground beef (chuck or sirloin) and veal mix
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- 2 pinches ground cloves
- 1 1/2 cups dry white wine (about 1/3 bottle)
- 2 cups beef stock
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- 2 (28-ounce) cans Italian pureed tomatoes
- 1 pound egg tagliatelle or bucatini pasta
- 3 tablespoons butter
- Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Instructions
- You know you love it and you know you make it your own special way if you’ve ever made it before. Here is my take on the classic, if only to be used as a helpful reminder to make-ahead a batch especially in the winter months.;
- Warm 2 cups milk in small pot over lowest heat.
- Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium to medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook until lightly brown. Then add the chicken livers, and cook almost through. Add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, rosemary, and bay leaves, and cook until tender, 10 minutes.
- Add the ground meat and cook through breaking into pieces, but do not brown. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, clove, and stir in the wine and allow it to cook into the meat, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the warm milk to the meat and allow it to absorb into the meat for 1 minute. Stir in the beef stock, vegetable stock, and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat and simmer over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Divide the sauce in 1/2, cool, and freeze one batch. Cool and store the remainder for a make-ahead meal within the week. Alternately, cook pasta to al dente, thin the sauce a bit with a bit of starchy pasta water and toss with pasta dressed with butter to combine. Top with grated cheese and chopped celery leaves. Serve with green salad.
Reviews
One of the best pasta recipes I’ve ever tasted. I did use evaporated milk instead of whole milk. This will be added to my family recipe collection.
This is really tasty. I did use the liver. However, the liquid ingredients does not match Rachael Ray’s amounts as cooked even though her estimations are transcribed for the recipe. For one thing she’s using about a 5 quart pot. There’s over 3.5 quarts worth of fluid, with the 2 plus pounds of meat and veggies it would over flow. I had to omit one cup each of the stocks for just this reason and it was still 3/4 inch from the rim of my 5.5 quart dutch oven. After simmering for 2.5 hours the reduction oozed stock when I plated. I’ll halve all the liquids the next time I cook it. When I reheated I just poured out some of the stock that was pooling and boy was it yummy.
My husband and I made this tonight and it was quite good, though a LOT of grease separated out to the surface, which I had to skim off each time I stirred the sauce. This might be because I used pork instead of veal, I don’t know. But overall it was good and I’d make it again.
I can’t figure out what happened. The sauce was bland and thin. I followed the recipe exactly except for the chicken livers which I omitted. I was disappointed.
This was delicious. I made the double batch but after giving it away to friends and neighbors, there is nothing left. Will definitely make this again.
This is a fantastic recipe, which is simpler than an old Emeril Lagasse one that I have used for years, and my family loved it! I prepared it w/o the chicken livers as this is not an ingredient I use ever in anything.
This was my first experience making bolognese. It was delicious, however, it took all afternoon to make and cost $75 at the store for all of the ingredients. This would only be something that you could make for a special occasion.