Ragù alla Bolognese (VSB)

When I was in Bologna once, I took a great pasta-making class at the famous Vecchia Scuola Bolognese (VSB), which was tremendously fun and informative. They are masters of pasta-making! Among other things, I really liked their version of ragù alla bolognese. Their recipe and video in Italian can be found here, but I have transcribed it below and made some modifications to our liking and to fit American ingredients.

Their recipe has twice as much salt as we can handle. Way too much salt.

Italian beef is generally better and more lean than American beef, so I would ignore the requirement that it be from the front of the cow and just pick an 85-90% lean ground beef.

We are disgusted by the thought of using lard (pork fat from around organs), even though it is actually healthier than butter (see comparison table with my recipe for croutons for soup). We use half butter and half olive oil. I have also tried pancetta, which is used in the official recipe, but feel that the flavor is too strong. In fact, I like the VSB version precisely because it's not as strong as the official version.

Finally, I highly recommend that you use a cuisinart to chop all the vegetables. It will make the whole process much more enjoyable and seem like a pretty easy recipe to prepare, which it is. You just have to be around to stir it every half hour or so.

75 g butter + 75 g extra virgin olive oil (original recipe: 150 g lard)

125 g celery

125 g carrot

250 g yellow onion

1000 g (2.2 lb) 85-90% ground beef, ideally grass-fed (in Italy: use ground beef from front part of cow)

12 g coarse sea salt (original recipe: 25 g)

1 cup red wine

500 g passata di pomodoro (Cento is a good brand) or crushed tomatoes or liquified San Marzano tomatoes

1. Melt the butter and olive oil in an enamel pot on low heat.

2. Cut the three vegetables into big pieces after weighing them, rinse them in cold water, then chop them finely in a cuisinart if you have one. Pulse the cuisinart to avoid creating a mush! The cuisinart will save a lot of time and work.

3. Add the finely-chopped veggies to the pot and cook on medium-low heat, stirring continually, until the onion is a bit translucent. We're sauteeing the veggies, obviously.

4. Add half the ground beef and half the salt, then the other half of the ground beef and the other half of the salt.

5. Turn up the heat to medium-high and stir the meat continuously. It needs to have a uniform color with a little pink left, and it should start losing a little of its liquid, but I would go mostly by the color. We don't want it completely white.

6. Add the red wine and and cook, again stirring a lot, until the smell of the alcohol is gone. You're cooking down the wine.

7. Add the liquid tomato and stir.

8. After it rebubbles, again stirring a lot, turn it down to low and let it cook for 6-7 hours with the cover on. Stir every 30 minutes, initially every 15 minutes. If it appears to be getting a little dry, add a little water when stirring. I add water maybe 4-5 times during the 6-7 hour period. Test for salt along the way.

9. You do not actually need to cook this for 6-7 hours. 3 hours is fine. And, if you are short on time, less time would also be fine, as well. I like to start the recipe around 11am and just let it cook all day. It's really not a big deal. I just need to be around the house that day. Set an alarm every 30 minutes.

10. One other suggestion: if it's simmering too hard, put the pot on your smallest burner. But definitely keep the cover on to avoid getting too dry.

11. This is traditionally served with tagliatelle, which are similar to fettuccine. I like to make homemade tagliatelle/fettuccine, but I prefer to use the semola-based egg pasta recipe, even though the other is more authentic.

12. When you go to serve the meal, it's easy because you just have to boil the pasta. The sauce is already done!

13. Serve with grated parmigiano-reggiano on top and on the side.