The ESSENTIALS of CLASSIC ITALIAN COOKING
by MARCELLA HAZAN is Considered by Many To Be The BIBLE of ITALIAN COOKING
RAGU BOLOGNESE
Bolognese Meat Sauce
for about 6 servings
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing with the pasta
1/2 cup chopped onion
2/3 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup chopped carrot
3/4 pound ground beef chuck, not too lean
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 cup whole milk [or 2 %]
Whole nutmeg for grating
1 cup dry white or red wine
1 1/2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds pasta
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano at the table
Put the oil, butter, and chopped onion in a heavy-bottomed pot and turn the heat to medium. Cook and stir until the onion is translucent. Add the celery and carrot and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring to coat the vegetables with fat.
Add the meat, a large pinch of salt, and some freshly ground pepper. Break the meat up with a fork, stir well, and cook until the meat has lost its raw color.
Add milk and let simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating, about 1/8 teaspoon, fresh nutmeg and stir.
Add the wine and let it simmer away. When the wine has evaporated, stir in the tomatoes. When they begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours, stirring from time to time. If the sauce begins to dry out, add 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary to keep it from sticking. At the end, there should be no water left, and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste for salt.
Toss with cooked, drained pasta and the remaining tablespoon of butter. Serve freshly grated cheese at the table.
THIS RECIPE For BOLOGNESE MEAT SAUCE Is From MARCELLA HAZAN’S ESSENTIALS of CLASSIC ITALIAN COOKING Which is Considered by Many to be The BIBLE of ITALIAN COOKING, and Marcell Hazan The Julia Child of Italian Cooking .. Vey True! And this recipe for Ragu Bolognese is probably of all the great recipes published by Hazan, Ragu Bolognese the # 1 Most Popular and Loved of all …
We losted Marcella this year, the great doen of Italian Cooking passed away at age 89. Her Memeory live on in her books and her recipes like this Ragu Bolognese and every time some cooks and serves it. Bravo Marcella and R.I.P. ….
The Journal of Italian Food Wine & Travel Says That Daniel Bellino-Zwicke’s BOLOGNESE SAUCE RECIPE Is THE BEST in AMERICA “We Agree”
What is Marinara Sauce? That’s a good one. And I can tell you there is no one single definitive answer. Doesn’t exists, unlike, Amatriciana or Bolognese Sauce which both can have variations, they are still both pretty defined and the variations come after what defines a Bolognese or Amatriciana Sauce.
Well, one thing that a Marinara Sauce is, it’s a Tomato Sauce, a type of Tomato Sauce and it will vary according to who makes it.
Italians (in Italy) refer to Marinara not as a Sauce but in association with a recipe as in
Spaghetti alla Marinara. this translates to Mariner’s Spaghetti or in the style of the mariner, or “Sailor,” and is of Southern Italy and Naples in particular. Southern Italian Spaghetti alla Marinara does not contain any Seafood as some might think.
Folklore has it that, Italian Sailors developed Marinara Sauce to cook on ships, as the high-acid content in tomatoes helped to preserve it well. Another theory is that the wives of Neapolitan Sailors cooked Spaghetti alla Marinara for their husbands when they returned from sea.
So what is Marinara Sauce? Renowned Cookbook author and Restaurateur Lidi Bastianich says of marinara sauce, “The difference between marinara sauce and tomato sauce is this: Marinara is a quick sauce, seasoned only with garlic, pepper, and, if you like, basil or oregano. The pieces of tomato are left chunky, and the texture of the finished sauce is fairly loose. Tomato sauce, on the other hand, is a more complex affair, starting with puréed tomatoes and seasoned with onion, carrot, celery, and bay leaf, and left to simmer until thickened and rich in flavor.”
Marinara Sauce is widely used in Italian-American Cuisine, and the sauce varies from person to person and, cook-to-cook, chef-to-chef, restaurant to restaurant, “there is no one single exacting specific recipe, but all usually have Olive Oil, Garlic, Tomato, Pepperoncino, and Basil and or Oregano. Oregano seems to be the biggest single factor in what a Marinara Sauce actually is, as many versions of Marinara Sauce seem to have Oregano included in it, which is not usually present in true Italian (of and from Italy) Tomato Sauce, or Sugo al Pomodoro. One other factor, is that Marinara Sauce is cooked quickly, in about 10 minutes as opposed to 45 minutes or longer for regular Tomato Sauce.
OK, now, my Marinara Sauce, what I think it is, and how I make it. Remember, I am of Italian-American descent. I cooked professionally for 20 years, in French, then Italian Restaurants. To me, the way I was taught and what I think is the best tasting Marinara Sauce is as follows. To make Marinara Sauce, I already have my base, regular Tomato Sauce that I have made previously. When I was in a restaurant and someone wanted Marinara Sauce, this is the one we made. We’d use about a cup of our regular tomato sauce that was always on hand. When we got an order for Spaghetti Marinara, we’d put some Olive Oil and a single serving pan. Heat it, add a good amount of chopped fresh Garlic. Cook the garlic, add a bit of Pepperoncino (Red Pepper Flakes) and a little dried Oregano. This was our flavoring base, and would considerably add much flavor to the base Tomato Sauce, making for a quite tasty Marinara. Once the garlic has cooked to where it just starts to brown a bit, you add the Tomato Sauce and heat through. Once your spaghetti has finished cooking, you drain it, drop it in the pan with your Marinara Sauce, adding a bit of the pasta cooking water, toss the pasta (mix) and serve. Voila, Spaghetti Marinara, my version and the one one most excepted as Marinara, though there are others. This is not the defining Marinara Sauce Recipe, but I believe the one most widely used, and no matter, I can tell you it’s dam tasty and, I always get raves whenever I make it. Basta!
Daniel Bellino-Zwicke
LEARN ABOUT MARINARA SAUCE, MEATBALLS< SUNDAY SAUCE, ITALIAN-AMERICAN NEW YORK and More .. In “La TAVOLA”
Pete Wells, The New York Times food critic gives Carbone 3 Stars, but his Review barely rates a Fair. It was an awful Blase Review of New York’s Hottest new Restaurant, Carbone. Don’t get your signals crossed, Wells didn’t right badly about Carbone, it’s just that his writing style of this article wasn’t very good, it was again, in fact Blase and harkens back to the awful New York Times Reviews of Frank Bruni .. The article had no sustenance, no pizzazz. Wells told as that the Vongole could have been more flavorful, The Tira Mi Su wasn’t that good, that the Veal Parm was the way you always hoped it would be. He liked the Rigatoni and Tortellini, as well as Lobster Fra Diavolo and Scampi.
We’ve been waiting a few months for The New York Times to review Carbone and we gotta say, the reveiw is a disappointment. Grub Street, The New York Observer, New York Magazine, and even The New York Post put out better reviews to The Times Blase one.
Pete Wells generally writes a good review, but this one, as The Big Boys in Brooklyn would say, Fuhgettabout-it !!! You get a “Satisfactory” on this one Pete. In the end, not many will remember how poorly this review was written, but the fact that Carbone got a 3 Star New York Times review. And I’m sure Mario Carbone and Rich Torissi could care less that the piece wasn’t written very well, but that they got 3 Stars. For now on, that’s all they are anyone will say, Three Stars from The New York Times. Basta!
La TAVOLA Is ITALIAN In GREENWICH VILLAGE
One of the great traditions of the Italian American enclave in the U.S. is the ritual of Sunday afternoon when the entire family gets together for Mama’s or Nona’s famed “Sunday Sauce.” What is it? Well there are a number of variations on the theme. Most Sunday Sauce’s are made with Italian Sausage, Braciola, and Meatballs. Some people make theirs with pork ribs, beef neck, and possibly chicken thighs and backs. These meats are slowly simmered for several hours with tomato, minced onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. I generally like to make my Sunday Sauce with sausage, meatballs, and pork ribs. Other times I’ll make it with Sausage, Ribs, and Braciola. An old tradition in some families is that mother or grandma would start the sauce early on a Sunday morning, get it simmering away for a couple hours on top of the stove, then put it in the oven for a couple hours while everyone goes to church, the sauce slowly simmers and when you get back home, the sauce is ready.
The Sunday Sauce that my mother would make was with sausage, meatballs and beef braciola. My memories are vivid watching my mother stuffing the braciola with garlic, parsley, Pecorino, and pignoli nuts, then sewing up the bundles with a needle and thread so they would hold together while simmering in the gravy (many families all over the New York and around the country simply call Sunday Sauce “Gravy”). Another fond memory was helping my mother roll and shape the meatballs.
As for me, my Sunday Sauce will vary depending on my mood. One thing I love to do when making the sauce is the addition of pork spare ribs, which not to many people use, I love it.
Whenever people eat my sauce, they go nuts for the ribs and some are surprised cause they might never have had them in a sauce before. They didn’t know that you could use pork spareribs. The ribs are traditional with some but not everybody. It is quite a shame for those who don’t add the ribs because they give the sauce some wonderful flavor and they are incredibly delicious to eat after braising in the sauce for a couple of hours. Whenever I make the sauce and I’m dishing it out to friends and family, I always make sure that I have my fare share of the ribs. Pork ribs cooked in this manner, simmering in the sauce are oh so succulent and tasty. They are far beyond compare. “They are Out-of-this-World!!!” The friends, one-by-one, go nuts for them. “Yes they are most than tasty!”
And what to serve with the Sunday Sauce you ask? It should be a short macaroni; rigatoni, ziti, or gnocchi are best.
The rituals of cooking, serving, and eating Sunday Sauce is a time honored one. It is a beautiful thing. If you mention the term Sunday Sauce to any number of millions of Italian-Americans, the wheels start turning in their heads. Thoughts of how tasty it is, all the different components; the meatballs, sausages, braciola, (maybe ribs, beef or pork neck), the pasta, and the gravy itself.
They think about sitting at the table with friends and or family, people they love. They think about the antipasti that will start the meal and about some good Italian Wine, maybe a nice Chianti. They think about the warmth in the air, loved ones, Dino, Sinatra, and of course, the
Sunday Sauce itself. “It’s a beautiful thing!!!” If you’ve never done it, “Try it!” If you haven’t cooked one for some time, plan a get-together soon. “Sunday Sauce, it brings people together,” in a most delightful way.
This is an Excerpt from Daniel Bellino-Zwicke’s “La TAVOLA” Italian-American New Yorker’s Adventures of The Table, which is available in paperback and Kindle on AMAZON.com …
La Tavola is filled with wonderful Stories of Italian-American New Yorkers, many from Greenwich Village and their adventures of the Table and Kitchen, Food, Wine, Family, and Friends. This Book is “A Must Have” for anyone interested in Italian Food, New York Food, and the Italian American Lifestyle …
GREENWICH VILLAGE ITALIAN 