Harissa bolognese, baked in one pan

Name: Harissa bolognese, baked in one pan
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Middle Eastern, Italian
Ingredients: 1 ½ lb ground beef, at least 15 percent fat; 1 lb ground pork; ⅓ cup tomato paste; ¼ cup harissa paste; 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce; 1 tbsp ground cumin; 1 tbsp ground coriander; ⅓ cup olive oil; 2 oz Parmesan, finely grated (about 1 cup); 2 oz Pecorino Romano, finely grated (about 1 cup); 1 carrot, peeled, halved and sliced; 1 small onion, roughly chopped; 2 large plum tomatoes, roughly chopped; 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped; 3 cups chicken stock; ½ cup heavy cream; 1 × 8 oz package dried manicotti or cannelloni, snapped in half crosswise; ¼ cup parsley, chopped (plus more to finish); salt and black pepper

Bolognese that ran off to Tunis and came back smoking.

At a Glance

Time

1 hr 30 min

Serves

Story

Harissa is Tunisia's national condiment, a sun-dried chile paste so woven into the country's table that UNESCO added it to its heritage list in 2022. Here it does the whole job of a long soffritto and a glass of wine at once, all smoke, heat and depth from a single spoonful, which is why this bolognese skips the usual hour on the stove.

Ingredients

1 ½ lb ground beefat least 15 percent fat
1 lb ground pork
⅓ cup tomato paste
¼ cup harissa paste
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
⅓ cup olive oil
2 oz Parmesanfinely grated (about 1 cup)
2 oz Pecorino Romanofinely grated (about 1 cup)
1 carrotpeeled, halved and sliced
1 small onionroughly chopped
2 large plum tomatoesroughly chopped
4 cloves garlicroughly chopped
3 cups chicken stock
½ cup heavy cream
1 × 8 oz package dried manicotti or cannellonisnapped in half crosswise
¼ cup parsleychopped (plus more to finish)
salt and black pepper

Method

Everything, meat and sauce and pasta both, cooks in one roasting pan in the oven. Snapping dried manicotti in half sounds like vandalism and is in fact the point: the shards crisp up top while the tubes below stay full of sauce. Two textures from one broken box.

Heat the oven to 475. In a large roasting pan, roughly 15 by 10 inches, pile in the beef, pork, tomato paste, harissa, Worcestershire, cumin, coriander, 3 tablespoons of the oil, two thirds of both cheeses, a good 1¾ teaspoons of salt and plenty of pepper.
Blitz the carrot, onion, tomatoes and garlic in a food processor until finely chopped, then stir them through the pan. Roast until browned and sizzling on top, about 25 minutes. Drop the oven to 375.
Break the meat apart thoroughly with a fork, stirring it into the juices it has thrown. Pour over the stock and cream, then add the pasta. Stir until every piece is wet, or it will scorch, and push as much under the surface as you can.
Roast until the pasta is tender, about 25 minutes, stirring once halfway.
Stir in the parsley, scatter the last of the cheese and drizzle the remaining oil. Roast a final 8 minutes until the top crisps and browns in patches. Let it sit 10 minutes so the loose liquid soaks back in, then finish with more parsley.

On the pass