The Best Pasta Bolognese You'll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality)

Epicurious

In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef Lish Steiling demonstrates how to make the best spaghetti bolognese at home.

Transcript

00:00I'm Lish Styling, I'm a professional chef,

00:02and today I'm gonna show you the real way to make bolognese.

00:05We are talking silky, savory, comforting bolognese.

00:10This is Bolognese 101.

00:13The misconceptions of bolognese are pretty much

00:16that it's just a meat and tomato sauce.

00:18The layers of flavor in this recipe are everything,

00:22from browning the meat, to adding the vegetables,

00:26to making sure that you caramelize the tomato paste,

00:28to reducing the milk, to adding the wine.

00:32All of it has a purpose.

00:34It takes time and patience,

00:36but really it's not complicated.

00:41A Dutch oven is perfect for a sauce like this

00:43because it cooks for a really long time.

00:45And the bottom is nice and heavy

00:47so that you prevent scorching.

00:48I'm gonna get her going over medium-high-ish heat.

00:51Add a good amount of olive oil to the bottom of this pan.

00:54So our oil is dancing in the pan.

00:57It's moving freely, leaving ribbons.

00:59I'm gonna start with my ground beef.

01:01I'm using 80-20 here.

01:03I'm gonna start to brown that.

01:05As this beef is cooking,

01:07I'm breaking it up with a wooden spoon

01:10because I want all of that meat to be nice and fine

01:13so that it clings to the pasta.

01:15I'm not gonna cook it fully here

01:16because I'm gonna add the vegetables.

01:18And as those cook, the meat will continue to cook

01:21and start to brown.

01:22So it's, again, just layering all of these flavors.

01:25You can see there's even some fat

01:26rendering out from the meat.

01:28Onion, finely chopped.

01:31Carrot, finely chopped as well.

01:33The carrot adds sweetness.

01:35And then a rib of celery

01:37because, again, it's just the magic of the Trinity,

01:40the mirepoix.

01:41Season with some salt

01:43because we're building our flavors here.

01:45Each ingredient deserves to taste the best that it can.

01:48And that means each ingredient needs salt.

01:50So you layer along the way.

01:52I like to hand dice all of my vegetables.

01:55You can also do it in a food prep.

01:57There's no shame in that game.

01:58So now we're gonna let this cook

02:00until the meat starts to brown a little bit.

02:03This should take about five to seven minutes.

02:06Bolognese is not a sauce that you wanna start

02:09on a Monday night at 8 p.m.

02:11It takes time.

02:13It takes patience.

02:14But the building of flavor is worth it.

02:17And it all comes from the technique.

02:19My meat is starting to get a little bit of color on it

02:22and the vegetables are starting to soften.

02:24So this is only gonna take a couple more minutes

02:26to get just that whisper of golden brown on the meat,

02:29vegetables soft all the way through.

02:31So I am pretty much there.

02:34They're starting to get some browning around the edge.

02:37A little bit of garlic goes in, about two cloves.

02:40I add it after sweating out the vegetables

02:43and browning the meat a little bit

02:44because you don't wanna overcook and brown the garlic

02:47and risk it tasting bitter.

02:49I'm scraping up all the bits

02:50that might be sticking to the bottom a little bit,

02:53getting the spoon around the side.

02:56Couple minutes longer.

02:58While that's cooking, I'm gonna crush some tomatoes.

03:01So I have a can of San Marzano tomatoes

03:06that I'm gonna hand crush.

03:07And honestly, it helps with finding out

03:10if there's any of those pesky nubbins left.

03:12Like you can see right there,

03:13that's actually the little nubbin from the tomato.

03:15You don't wanna bite into that.

03:17Canned tomatoes are picked at their peak

03:20and canned at their peak.

03:21So you always know that you're gonna have

03:23that consistent, in-season tomato flavor.

03:26I'm starting to get the browning at the bottom of the pan,

03:28which is exactly what we want.

03:31So now, tomato paste, double concentrate.

03:34About a quarter cup or so goes in

03:37to a little cleared section of the pot

03:39because we wanna toast it.

03:41We wanna bring out all the caramelly goodness

03:43and the natural sweetness of the tomato paste.

03:47And we do that by adding heat to it

03:49and cooking it in some of that oil

03:51that's already in the pan.

03:52You can already see the tomato paste is nice and toasted

03:55and the color changed.

03:57Now, I'm mixing it back into the meat.

04:00That brown goodness at the bottom of the pan,

04:03known as the fond, is starting to stick even more.

04:06So now it's time to deglaze it so that we don't scorch it.

04:09So now we add the milk.

04:10Milk is a pretty classic ingredient

04:11when it comes to making bolognese.

04:13Milk used to be there just for tenderizing the meat

04:17because the cut of meat that they would use was so tough.

04:19Now we keep it in there

04:21because it balances out the acid of the tomatoes,

04:24it adds sweetness and richness to the sauce,

04:26and it still tenderizes the meat slightly,

04:28leaving you with a very silky mouthfeel

04:31when you eat the sauce.

04:32So this is gonna go until the milk is practically

04:35completely evaporated and reduced.

04:38You wanna give it some attention as it does this.

04:40It's gonna take about 20 minutes.

04:41You wanna keep stirring the bottom

04:43so that you don't burn the bottom of the pan.

04:45It's gonna start to look a little almost separated,

04:48and that's okay, that's what you want, actually.

04:50Everything's gonna come together in the end.

04:52It has been about 20 minutes,

04:54and when I tell you that I could stop right here and eat it,

04:57I'm not lying.

04:58The milk is almost entirely evaporated,

05:01but it's changed the look of the meat.

05:03It seems silkier, it seems more velvety.

05:07I can scrape the mixer to a side,

05:09and there's not liquid left.

05:11That's your indicator that you're ready for the next step.

05:14I'm going to add about a cup of red wine to the mixture.

05:19This is gonna add depth of flavor.

05:20It's going to add acid.

05:22It adds a little character and backbone.

05:25It's layering those flavors.

05:27So now we're gonna let the wine reduce.

05:29It's been about 10 or 12 minutes.

05:31We're back pretty much to the same spot

05:34that I was with the whole milk.

05:36It leaves a little clean space in the bottom of the pan.

05:38It's still so silky.

05:40Look at that.

05:41And now, at this point,

05:43I'm gonna add my hand-crushed tomatoes

05:45over the back of the spoon so that it doesn't splash.

05:48I'm gonna nestle in a little aromatic.

05:52Bay leaf adds almost a grassy eucalyptus note to it.

05:56So I just use dry bay leaf.

05:58So now the secret ingredient is the Parmesan rind,

06:03which is completely edible.

06:05And we're gonna throw it in the sauce

06:06so that all of that nutty goodness from the cheese,

06:10all of that flavor, goes into the sauce.

06:13So I'm taking about half of that rind,

06:16nestling that in there along with the bay leaf.

06:19Tuck it away.

06:20I'm gonna see where we're at on seasoning.

06:23I'm gonna add just a little bit of salt

06:25because it's gonna reduce.

06:26So I don't want to season too much now,

06:28but I still want all of the ingredients

06:30to taste the best that they can.

06:32Now I'll let it simmer for about two hours.

06:35You still want to give it a stir,

06:36maybe every 15, 20 minutes or so,

06:39just to prevent it from burning at the bottom of the pan.

06:42So this sauce looks perfect right now.

06:45It is reduced.

06:47You can see that it's all about the meat.

06:49The texture is beautiful and silky.

06:52This is gonna be perfect picked up

06:54with some tagliatelle or pappardelle,

06:56any kind of thicker flat noodle.

06:59Perfection.

07:02The marriage of the sauce and pasta together.

07:05You toss it together so that the sauce coats the pasta.

07:09It's not just on top.

07:11It's a whole dance that happens in the pan

07:13that makes the magic happen.

07:15The sauce bolognese is ready to use

07:17however you want to use it.

07:18However I want to use it.

07:20And in this case, it's gonna be with pasta.

07:22Tagliatelle.

07:23Generously season our pasta water.

07:25This is your one opportunity to season your pasta.

07:28The pasta is gonna absorb the water.

07:30So I'm just gonna drop in some fresh tagliatelle here.

07:34Two bunches.

07:35A flat, wide pasta is the best to use for this sauce

07:39because it clings to the pasta incredibly well.

07:42While the pasta cooks,

07:44I am going to warm up some pasta sauce.

07:46Our bolognese.

07:49In Italy, you would never get pasta

07:52that just has sauce plopped on top.

07:55It's always tossed.

07:56It needs to coat the pasta.

07:58I'm gonna turn on this burner,

07:59warm the sauce up a little bit.

08:01I'm adding a little bit of pasta water

08:04just to loosen it and help warm it through.

08:05It's probably maybe about a quarter of a cup's worth.

08:08Pasta should be close.

08:09Let's see what we got.

08:11Love.

08:13Pasta in.

08:15Oh my goodness.

08:16So imagine if you just put the sauce on top.

08:19Then you have to take the pasta,

08:21you have to take some sauce.

08:23You have to make your bite, right?

08:25This way, every single piece of pasta is coated in the sauce.

08:30This is the love, people.

08:31Little bit more pasta water

08:33because we want it to coat well.

08:35Little bit of olive oil.

08:37So you really just wanna toss the pasta around.

08:39You can do this with tongs or you can do the flip.

08:43If you don't feel comfortable with the flip,

08:45don't worry about it.

08:46Tongs are your best friend.

08:47You just wanna make sure

08:49that the pasta is coated in the sauce.

08:52We are about there.

08:53I'm gonna add some Parmigiano-Reggiano

08:55to finish at the end here.

08:58Once this is added in, I'm gonna turn off the heat

09:01because you don't wanna continue to cook the cheese.

09:04You just wanna toss it with the pasta.

09:08Oh my God.

09:09All right, we're ready to plate.

09:12Look at this, huh?

09:13Every strand is coated in the sauce.

09:16I mean, oh yeah.

09:19Just a little nest, a showering of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

09:25This is my perfect bowl of pasta bolognese.

09:29Yes.

09:34Let me tell you, the flavors of this bolognese,

09:37it's sweet, it's savory.

09:39You taste every single step,

09:41the flavors that you've built throughout the process.

09:44You took your time, you did it right, and it shows.

09:47This is a pasta sauce that I have made many, many times

09:51in my career, in my life, and it never gets old.

09:54To me, this is the real way to make bolognese

09:56and it really pays off.

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