Saturday, November 8, 2014

Pork Bolognese sauce


When it comes to Red Sauce I am a very patient man. Nine times out of ten I don't serve the sauce on the day that I make it; I serve it the next day, after the flavors have had time to knit together some. My friend Fred has on occasion given me grief over this practice, wonders if I am a tad overzealous.

I do not invite my friend Fred over for Red Sauce anymore.

I did invite my friends Marc and Beth over for some last Saturday, but it was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. I'd planned on making a Bolognese sauce that afternoon, only it was supposed to be for Sunday dinner. I use veal in Bolognese, but since we'd be eating that same day I switched gears and decided to use pork instead. My reasoning was thus: pork has more flavor than veal, and so it'd make a much tastier same-day sauce.

As it happens, this reasoning turned out to be pretty sound. I'd not used pork in Bolognese sauce before, but I absolutely plan to again.


Finely chop two large carrots, two celery stalks, one small onion, three garlic cloves and some hot pepper (optional, though I used a whole fresh cayenne here) and saute in olive oil under medium heat until softened.


Add 1 1/2 pounds of ground pork, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, incorporate and cook until browned.


Add one cup of dry white wine, increase the heat to high and reduce until the wine has evaporated.


Add 1/2 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg and one cup of whole milk. Cook until the milk has evaporated.


Add one 35-ounce can of tomatoes, turn the heat down to low and allow the sauce to simmer very gently for around three hours. (If the heat is on too high and the sauce reduces too much you can always add some more milk.)


This sauce cooked for around four hours, actually.


And Marc and Beth and My Associate and myself ate the whole thing!

Sorry, Fred.

6 comments:

Catherine said...

A very delicious and classic comfort meal. Catherine

Peter V. Bella said...

Frank Sinatra was rumored to make a mean Bolognese sauce. I read somewhere that evaporated milk works better than whole milk. I tried it. It does. It has something to do with more proteins and how they incorporate with the meat. It gave the sauce a nicer mouth feel.

Anonymous said...

I have a question, we are a non alcoholic home, instead of wine could another liquid be used.. Thank you
Germaine

Mister Meatball said...

I'd think using a little stock would be fine.

Or perhaps skip the step and just go with more milk.

Anonymous said...

Mister Meatball ~~

So glad to see your recent blog posts. You inspire my Italian cooking imagination and passion for cooking in general. I'm having some friends over soon and I'm thinking of going with your original meatballs recipe and Sunday gravy. Why not. There's hardly any chance I could go wrong.

Thanks

Dave in NH

Mister Meatball said...

Good luck, Dave. Can't go wrong.