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