Ragù alla bolognese is a versatile Italian classic, delicious with pasta, or in a lasagne - and here is how to make it using your Thermomix with all of the flavours from perfectly browned meat, and no sloppy disappointing mush - so if you've been disappointed so far, don't give up yet!
Probably one of the most well-known and loved Italian dishes, the ragù
alla bolognese is possibly one of the first dishes
many of us make once we leave home, in the form of spaghetti (alla) bolognese -
which is actually a dish which originated outside of Italy! The
Italians tend to serve their ragù (Italian
for 'meat-based sauce') in the form of tagliatelli alla bolognese (with
flat pasta), or in lasagne alla bolognese, as this kind of meat sauce
does not stick well to spaghetti. Honestly? I only learnt that a few years ago, and it was news to me too (as well as the milk thing!) and I've been making it for a couple of decades!
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| Non-authentic serving suggestion on top of spaghetti! Or stir into tagliatelli to avoid offence. |
Back
in the day, I imagine most of us when trying to cook our first masterpieces in the kitchen went
through a phase where we probably threw onions, mince and a tin of
tomatoes into a pan with a shake of mixed herbs, and came out with a tasty pasta sauce,
which then evolved over the years. Once outside of Italy, the ragù
seems
to change quite drastically depending on which country it has
'emigrated' to. Believe it or not, adding bacon/pancetta and herbs is
not so authentic,
however it's a taste which so many of us are accustomed to, so I've put
them in as options (just like 'Mummy' used to make it. Or Dad in my case, who was the main cook). Here is my Thermomix version of the traditional
recipe, which is based on all the traditional
ingredients (plus a couple of optional ingredients to satisfy modern
tastebuds) for a very authentic flavour, including milk (which
may come as a slight surprise to a few people, and certainly isn't
something I included in my early days of cooking, but is very
traditional) which has an amazingly tenderizing effect on the meat, so
please do include it if you haven't previously - the difference is
really noticeable!
Don't get me wrong, I haven't even tried any of the Thermomix bolognese sauce recipes out there, so I can't comment on them, and this is no reflection on anyone else's recipe. It never occurred to me to do so because it's something which I've been cooking for around twenty years that I'm perfectly happy with flavour-wise (if it's not broke, why fix it, as the saying goes) and a brief look around at a few available (there are so many!) showed ingredients that I don't use in mine, or vice versa - it was just a question of getting mine right in the Thermomix. Mushy, sloppy meat sauce is something I've noticed many Thermomix users complaining of time and time again, and with my first attempts at cooking it in the Thermomix, I could certainly see why. It took a few attempts to get it 'right', and every time I changed the way I cooked the sauce and the meat, the order, the method, but with pretty much the same ingredients each time, and a 'control' batch on the hob going at the same time, to taste it against. On the last attempt (this one), which I swore *was* the last attempt, I finally got it how I wanted it. Phew!
Now, two important points.
Firstly,
you will need a pan as well as your Thermomix. Preferably a heavy-based one with a non-stick surface. Just to quickly brown the
meat in, in one large piece (as if it was a large rectangular burger -
you don't cook it through, just literally brown on one side, flip and brown the other side, then
set aside. It will be raw inside.).
Shouldn't be a big deal - you can do it while you're preparing the
vegetables, or even while they're cooking in the Thermomix, and put it onto a plate when it's browned and set to one
side. Well, you didn't want flavourless meat-mush, did you? This took a few different experiments to get right, so I'm
really hoping you'll enjoy it as much as we do, and no-one will ever know you cooked it in
anything but an authentic manner!
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| Even less authentic serving suggestion - on top of 'courgetti' / 'zoodles'! Skinny-style. Heinous! |
Secondly, you have choices here. Three to be precise, being (a) full-fat, (b) skinny and (c) with extra tomatoes added near the end to give a more tomato-y flavour, and simultaneously cut down the red meat you're eating, cut the calories, and stretch the dish out further (you'll end up with 2 litres of tasty pasta sauce - not bad for 500g mince!). It's far less complicated than it sounds, basically it boils down to: (a) choosing to make a full fat, authentic-tasting ragù, in which case you substitute full fat minced beef and pork (or veal), lubricate with olive oil to your tastes, and if you're using bacon or pancetta, just choose the full fat streaky variety, rather than the low fat options, and minimal oil I've given in the recipe. You don't need me to put those in as options, or calorie count them, because you're not counting! Just use the same weights. Or (b) you can follow the recipe recommendations for lower fat meat and measured oil, and you have a low fat ragù with all the authentic flavours and far fewer calories, that is incredibly tasty and guilt-free. Finally, (c) if the sauce is too 'meaty' for you, or you want to stretch it out to feed more people or have some chunks of tomato in it, you just add one or two tins of chopped tomatoes at the end and cook for a few extra minutes as per the method. This is also the lowest calorie option (from 154 calories).
So a fantastic family favourite, that can keep the healthy-eaters happy too!
