Bolognese Sauce

Method

1. 01

   Step 1: Dice the soffritto small

   Onion, carrot and celery need to be cut into 3–4 mm dice. Larger pieces will not dissolve even in three hours and stay as recognisable vegetables in the sauce.

2. 02

   Step 2: Render the pancetta

   In a heavy pot, cook the pancetta with the oil over medium heat for 5 minutes, until the fat has run and the edges turn golden.

3. 03

   Step 3: Sweat the vegetables

   Add the soffritto and cook gently for 12–15 minutes. It should turn soft and sweet, with no browning at all.

4. 04

   Step 4: Brown the mince

   Raise the heat and add the meat in batches without breaking it up straight away: let the bottom layer form a crust for 2 minutes, then separate it with a spatula.

5. 05

   Step 5: Cook off the wine

   Pour in the white wine and let it boil hard until the smell of alcohol has gone, about 5 minutes. Red wine would make the sauce coarse and too tannic.

6. 06

   Step 6: Add the milk

   Pour in the milk and stew until it is almost fully absorbed. Milk before tomato is the crucial step: it tenderises the meat while there is still no acid to tighten it.

7. 07

   Step 7: Add tomato and stock

   Stir in the passata, tomato paste and half the stock. Bring it down to the quietest possible bubble — roughly one per second, no more.

8. 08

   Step 8: Simmer 2.5–3 hours

   Half cover the pot and top up with stock now and then so it never dries out. A brisk boil simply dries the mince and toughens it; slow heat turns collagen into gelatine.

9. 09

   Step 9: Know when it is ready

   The finished sauce holds its shape on a spoon and orange beads of fat gather on the surface. Season now and serve with tagliatelle — flat pasta carries a meat sauce far better than spaghetti.