Recipe for Ragu Bolognese Sauce

I’ve been told that if you want to make your way to an Italian man’s heart it is essential to be able to make a good ragu.

It is a wonderfully versatile sauce - the classic bolognese sauce for Tagliatelle alla Bolognese, indispensable for lasagne, and also delicious with polenta and gnocchi. I have been making Marcella Hazan’s version for many years from her Classic Italian Cookbook.

It is the most delicious and concentrated one I know. Marcella says it should be cooked for at least 3½ hours at the merest simmer and that 5 hours would be better, but I find you get a very good result with even 1½ hours cooking on a diffuser mat. Ragu can be made ahead and freezes very well.

Serves 6

12ozs (45g) butter

2 tbsp finely chopped onion

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp finely chopped celery

2 tbsp finely chopped carrot

12ozs (340g) minced lean beef, preferably chuck or neck

Salt ½ pint (300ml) dry white wine

4 fl ozs (120ml) milk

One-eight teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1 x 14 oz (400g) tin Italian tomatoes, roughly chopped with their own juice.

Small casserole

In Italy they sometimes use an earthenware pot for making ragu, but I find that a heavy enamelled cast-iron casserole with high sides works very well. Heat the butter with the oil and saute the onion briefly over medium heat until just translucent. Add the celery and carrot and cook gently for 2 minutes. Next add the minced beef, crumbling it in the pot with a fork.

Add salt to taste, stir, and cook only until the meat has lost its raw red colour (Marcella says that if it browns it will lose its delicacy).

Add the wine, turn the heat up to medium high, and cook, stirring occasionally, until all the wine has evaporated. Turn the heat down to medium, add in the milk and the freshly grated nutmeg, and cook until the milk has evaporated, stirring every now and then. Next add the chopped tomatoes and stir well. When the tomatoes have started to bubble, turn the heat down to the very lowest so that the sauce cooks at the gentlest simmer - just an occasional bubble. I use a heat diffuser mat for this.

Cook uncovered for a minimum of 1½ hours (better still 2 or even 3), depending on how concentrated you like it, stirring occasionally. If it reduces too much add a little water and continue to cook. When it is finally cooked, taste and correct seasoning. Because of the length of time involved in cooking this, I feel it would be worthwhile to make at least twice the recipe.