Winter Bolognese

My winter style Bolognese is a richer sauce, using beef instead of the pork / veal combination and red wine instead of white. The addition of brie to serve adds a wonderful creaminess that complements the rich sauce. Just the thing for a night at home with a good glass of red.

Ingredients

• Pappardelle
• Olive Oil
• 1 Carrot - Diced
• 1 Stick of Celery - Diced
• 1 Onion - Diced
• 3 Fresh Bay Leaves (dried if you don't have fresh)
• 4 Cloves for Garlic
• 2 Cloves - Ground
• 2 Cups of Red Wine (preferably Shiraz)
• 1kg of Beef Mince
• 2 x 700ml Bottles of Italian Passata
• 2 x 400g Cans of Whole Italian Tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar
• Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Basil Leaves to Serve
• Slices of Brie to Serve

Process

1. Heat a drizzle of the olive oil in a pan.

2. Add the carrot, celery, onion and begin to slowly sweat off until well cooked through and translucent.

After a few minutes also add in the bay leaves and sweat through.

3. In a frypan, begin browning the meat in batches and set aside until the aromatics are ready.

4. When the aromatics are ready, add the ground clove and cook for a minute or two releasing the flavour.

5. Add the garlic and cook off, being careful not to burn.

6. Add the cooked beef mince and stir through.

7. Add the two bottles of Italian passata and the two cans of tomatoes and stir through.

8. If mince is still remaining continue browning off in batches and add directly to the other pan.

9. Add the two cups of red wine to the frypan, deglaze, boil off the alcohol and reduce slightly.

10. Tip the wine mix into the other pan and mix through.

11. Add a pinch of salt, a dozen good grinds of pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil and stir through.

12. Simmer until the sauce has boiled down and is rich without being too runny or too thick.

13. When complete remove the bay leaves.

14. Prepare and cook pappardelle.

Serve in pasta bowls on top of pappardelle, topped with generous slices of brie and fresh torn basil leaves.

Of Interest

• Timing and the heat of your pans are important when cooking this dish:
• When cooking through the aromatics use a medium heat - be sure not to burn the onion as it can become bitter. The same applies to the garlic - just cook it through until it starts to smell sweetened.
• When cooking the meat in a separate pan you want the pan to be really hot. You want to cook the meat so it starts to caramelise or brown. If you have brown bits of the meat sticking to the bottom of the frypan then you're on track.
• This is not really a 'one-pot dish'. By adding the meat to the aromatics directly you can still cook the meat through but you create more of a Bolognese stew and lose the opportunity to fry off the meat creating that wonderful caramelisation.
• When you deglaze the pan make sure you use a wooden spoon or your favourite non-scratch utensil and give the fry-pan a good going over when you have put the wine in there. The idea is to wash and rub off the caramelisation that has stuck to the bottom of the fry-pan so you can add these flavours to the Bolognese mix.
• Make sure you use the 'whole' Italian tomatoes in the can. Using the whole tomatoes just seems to create a better flavour in this dish than using the 'diced' tomatoes in the can. The whole tomatoes will break down in the sauce as it simmers through.
• After removing the bay leaves you might want to work the sauce through with a masher just to blend through to provide a smooth sauce - or then again you might not want to - leaving some tomato chunks in for a rustic styled sauce.