Ragù alla Bolognese.

So, long time no see. I’ve been pretty busy and kind of sick in the mean time, so I didn’t really get to cooking special things and blogging about them. But this is a very nice treat today. My by far favorite recipe for ragù alla bolognese. I don’t think I’ve been experimenting with anything as much as I have with ragus. And this is in my opinion the best you can make.

It’s a perfect meaty sauce. Not too tomato-ish. You taste the wine, but it definitely does not overpower the meat at all. The meat is the star in this sauce, so get some high quality ground beef or – even better – grind it yourself. Seriously, it’s worth it.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 stalk of celery
2 carrots
2 medium onions
3/4 cup milk
2 cups dry red wine
2 cups chicken stock
3.5 lbs minced beef
3 cups tomato passata

1 tsp. brown sugar or honey if necessary

bouqet garni:
1 sprig of rosemary
1 sprig of thyme
1 sprig of sage
1 bay leaf

Start with pre-heating your oven to 250 degrees. Finely chop all vegetables and caramelize them over medium heat in olive oil and butter for about 20 minutes. In another small pot reduce wine until only a quarter of the original volume is left. Add minced meat to vegetables and turn up the heat to high. Fry the meat until lightly browned but not dried out and add milk. Reduce until almost dry. Add the wine reduction, turn down heat to medium-low. Add tomato passata, chicken stock, the bouqet garni and transfer everything to a big ovenproof pot. Let the ragu simmer in your pre-heated oven for at least 3 hours.

Before serving season with salt and pepper to taste and if necessary balance out the acidity with a little honey or sugar.