The long way to Bolognese

Name: The long way to Bolognese
Total time: 4 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 tbsp vegetable oil; 3 tbsp butter (plus 1 tbsp for tossing the pasta); ½ cup onion, finely chopped; ⅔ cup celery, finely chopped; ⅔ cup carrot, finely chopped; ¾ lb ground beef chuck (or 1 part ground pork to 2 parts beef); 1 cup whole milk; whole nutmeg, for grating (about ⅛ tsp); 1 cup dry white wine; 1 ½ cups canned Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice; 1 ¼ lb pasta (1¼ to 1½ lb, tagliatelle is traditional); salt; black pepper, freshly ground; Parmigiano-Reggiano, freshly grated, at the table

Milk first, then wine, then the laziest three-hour simmer there is.

At a Glance

Time

4 hrs, mostly unattended

Serves

Story

This is a meat sauce that happens to have tomato in it, not the other way round, which is why there is barely more than a cup. The trick that makes it Marcella's is the milk, cooked into the beef before a drop of wine or tomato goes near the pot. It tenderizes the meat and takes the sharp edge off the tomatoes, and you cannot fake it by stirring in cream at the end.

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp butterplus 1 tbsp for tossing the pasta
½ cup onionfinely chopped
⅔ cup celeryfinely chopped
⅔ cup carrotfinely chopped
¾ lb ground beef chuckor 1 part ground pork to 2 parts beef
1 cup whole milk
whole nutmegfor grating (about ⅛ tsp)
1 cup dry white wine
1 ½ cups canned Italian plum tomatoescut up, with their juice
1 ¼ lb pasta1¼ to 1½ lb, tagliatelle is traditional
salt
black pepperfreshly ground
Parmigiano-Reggianofreshly grated, at the table

Method

Marcella Hazan's ragù, the one her readers named above all the others when she died. It looks like almost nothing on the page and asks for almost nothing of you except that you not rush it.

Warm the oil, butter and onion in a heavy pot over medium heat. Cook the onion until it turns translucent, then add the celery and carrot and cook about 2 minutes, stirring to coat them well.
Add the beef with a good pinch of salt and several grindings of pepper. Break it up with a fork and cook only until it loses its raw red color. Do not brown it, dear boy. This is a gentle sauce from the very first step.
Pour in the milk and let it simmer, stirring now and then, until it has bubbled away completely, then grate in the nutmeg. This is the step everyone is tempted to skip and the one that makes the sauce hers. The milk goes in before the wine and quietly tenderizes the meat while it cooks down.
Add the wine and let it simmer until it evaporates. Add the tomatoes and their juice and stir. When it begins to bubble, turn the heat to the laziest simmer you can manage, a single bubble breaking the surface now and then and no more. Cook uncovered 3 hours or more, stirring occasionally. It will dry out and the fat will separate, and that is exactly right. Splash in ½ cup water whenever it looks like sticking. At the end no water should be left and the fat should sit free. Stir it back in, taste, correct the salt.
Toss with drained cooked pasta and the last tablespoon of butter. Grate the Parmigiano at the table, over each plate rather than into the pot.

Better the next day, as these things always are. Cook it a day ahead if the dinner matters, cool it and let a night in the fridge marry the whole thing. Tagliatelle is the traditional partner, though a rigatoni catches the sauce in its ridges and no one at your table will complain.

On the pass