Simmering Success: Remaking Bolognese Sauce
This classic Italian sauce is a labor of love but well worth the couple of hours to make it.
When my daughter decided she wanted to travel to Italy and Spain with our local high school, I was excited. Then… when I was told I could go, too, the first thing I thought to myself was “the food!”.
In preparation, Phoebe and I prepared an Italian-themed dinner party for friends that explored food associated with the various regions of Italy. We had a lot of fun learning about Italian food and eating some less familiar pasta dishes. Even our evening of Italian cuisine with friends didn’t prepare us for the food we would have while in Florence and Rome.
While the food was great, I did somewhat regret that the teens (and adults) with us didn’t get to experience the full breadth of an Italian meal with all its courses. However, experiencing some of the food in a more traditional setting immediately launched me into “I’m going to remake everything when we get home” mode.
And, so, it has begun.
We stayed near Florence in Montecatini Terme – about 20,000 population which is the size of the town I now live in. We didn’t get a chance to explore the town but did eat meals in our hotel.
While we weren’t enthused about the hotel guestrooms, the food was delicious. We were served Bolognese with rigatoni at dinner on our first night.
This was the first course… thin sliced pork loin and roasted potatoes came next followed by crème caramel for dessert (I’ll remake these a little later). We were also able to get a decent red table wine with our meal - Poggio Sereno Rosso.
Now… I’m no stranger to Italian food or restaurants. I have had Bolognese sauce many times… or so I thought. There was something distinctly different about what was placed in front of me that evening compared to the great pretender red meat sauces in America. This was thick and meaty with a lighter tomato flavor and something distinctive that I couldn’t pinpoint until I began researching traditional Bolognese sauce - chicken livers and nutmeg!
Bolognese Sauce
Bolognese sauce is a velvety, meaty sauce that has roots in Bologna in northern Italy. The sauce is traditionally made with a combination of ground meat, Italian soffritto (a mix of onions, carrots, and celery), tomatoes, wine, and cream then simmered for a long time which makes it rich and flavorful.
Many of the older recipes I reviewed also called for a couple of chicken livers. I first wondered why, then realized the livers add to the silky texture of the Bolognese and provide a bit of nuanced flavor. If you don’t know the livers are in the sauce, you would never taste them. If you DO know, then it becomes a bit more obvious. In other words, if your husband doesn’t like livers, don’t say anything!
Most recipes I found also called for a pinch of nutmeg. Nutmeg, come to find out, is considered indispensable to Bolognese meat sauce. I’ve always used nutmeg in white sauces and in almost anything where spinach is a main ingredient, but I’ve never used it with meat. A little goes a long way and too much hits a bitter note instead of warm, woody, and slightly sweet.
Tagliatelle
The Bolognese sauce we had for dinner in Italy was served with rigatoni. The old-style choice, however, is tagliatelle because it is a traditional pasta of northern Italy.
Culinary history is often wrought with legend and fable simply because pinpointing when and how a food or recipe came to be is difficult. One popular legend says that tagliatelle was invented in the late 15th century by Bolognese chef Maestro Zefirano. He was inspired to create the pasta in honor of Italian noblewoman Lucrezia d'Este's wedding to Annibale II Bentivoglio. She was the daughter of the Duke of Ferrara; the wedding was celebrated in Bologna in 14871.
Folklore tells us that Lucrezia’s hair was the true inspiration for the long flat noodles. I wonder what kind of pasta shape my hair would inspire?! Surely something long, kinky, and unruly!
Here in Southern Illinois, Tagliatelle is one of many pastas that are hard to find at the grocery store. As a result, we tossed our Bolognese sauce with a good quality linguine. It was delicious!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Culinary Travelers to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.