This sauce is called Spag Bol in England and is an absolute staple in the British diet. Over here in the States it’s called Spaghetti Bolognese or Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. Over in Italy they call it ragu and it’s eaten with tagliatelle. However you refer to this dish… the one thing that can be agreed upon, is that it’s delicious.
Interestingly, I didn’t grow up eating a lot of Italian food. My childhood in southern California was a lot of 80’s staples like Mac n Cheese, a pork chop and green bean dish, steak and potatoes and broccoli, big salads and the Mommy Myer pasta which was really the only Italian dish on rotation in our home. We were lucky enough to have never eaten meat sauce out of a jar, but more we just didn’t eat meat sauce. It wouldn’t be until I moved to London at 23 that I would eat this dish with any regularity. Over in England the Spag Bol ranges from homemade tagliatelle with a wild boar ragu to overcooked spaghetti covered in jarred sauce and sometimes topped with cheddar cheese. I have had my fair share of bad spag bols but I also remember a bowl of this ethereal Bolognese that I ate in the Tuscan countryside outside of Siena. It was the end of November and I must have been 27. I used to make my boyfriend (now husband) and our friends celebrate Thanksgiving with me and each year we would rent a house somewhere with good food. At that time of year houses were very cheap to rent and we would basically spend all weekend eating and drinking. I recall thinking at the time how exotic wild boar sounded. While I can’t for the life of me remember the restaurant’s name, I will never forget that Bolognese.
This recipe is a mish mash of ones that I have made over the years and while it varies from time to time, this is a trusted favorite. I also love making it for large groups or dinner parties. It is always best made the day before, which means I don’t have to cook much on the day of the party AND I find that everyone loves it. Kids, toddlers, teens and of course adults all happily tuck in and ask for seconds. Also it freezes perfectly so the list below is for a double batch for a family of 4 or for a dinner party of 8-10.
Ingredients:
Small handful of sliced guanciale , if you can’t find guanciale you can use pancetta or even at a push bacon
1 pack of Linguine - I then freeze half of the sauce (if you are using all the sauce then use 2-2.5 packs of linguine
1 lb ground beef - I like 15% fat content
1 lb ground pork
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley stalks
Large handful of fine to medium chopped parsley leaves
1 14.5 ounce can of crushed tomatoes or whole peeled tomatoes that you mush up with your hands
1.5 cups of whole milk
2 cups of chicken stock or water
Splash of white wine to deglaze - about 1/2 cup
1 large yellow onion
2 celery stalks
2 medium carrots
1-2 Bay leaves
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil - cooking and drizzling
Parmigiana Reggiano - 1/4 cup of cut up chunks and then more grated for finishing
** this is just a base. If you like Rosemary, add in finely chopped rosemary. If you like red wine, use that instead of white. If you like garlic, add in garlic. There are hundreds of variations to this sauce so feel free to make it your own.
Instructions:
I like to chop everything at the beginning and get all the hard work out of the way. Slice up your guanciale and put it into a cold pan.
Medium to finely chop your onion, celery and carrot. Finely slice your parsley stalks and add them to that.
Starting on a medium low heat in a cold large pan, cook your guanciale. It should render out the fat slowly. This should take around 7-10 minutes. You don’t want to cook it too quickly. Once the fat is rendered, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Now add in the onion, celery and carrots and also the parsley stalks. Add in a good pinch of salt and cook covered for about 15 minutes. Again this is on a low to medium heat. You want to give these vegetables time to slowly cook as they are the base of the flavor here. After 15 minutes, the veg is soft and possibly starting to just caramelize. Add in the tomato paste. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes stirring constantly.
At this point you can do 1 of 2 things. If you used a big enough pan/pot you can add your meats in directly with the vegetables. If you don’t have a very large pan then remove the veg with a slotted spoon and now cook the meat. Depending on how fatty your meat is, you might need to add some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook the meat until it’s just cooked through you but not browning. Again a medium heat should work for this.
At this point everything that was removed from the pan gets added back in. So if you removed the veg, it goes back in and the guanciale goes back in. Pour in the white wine and cook on high heat until it is mostly evaporated.( If you don’t cook with wine just leave out this step) Next add in chicken stock or water if you don’t have stock. Now add in the tomatoes, Parm chunks and Bay leaves. 2 if they are fresh and 1 if dried.
Cover and cook on 1 notch above the lowest setting for 2-3 hours. Now taste it and see if it needs salt. Adjust the seasoning and add in the milk. Cook uncovered now for another hour on medium low. After an hour the sauce should be done. If you feel like it’s still not thick enough, crank up the heat and cook until its reduced to your liking.
At this stage you are ready to finish it. Off the heat add in a large handful of grated Parm. Finely or medium finely chop the parsley leaves and add that in now. Give it a drizzle of good finishing olive oil. Taste it and see if it needs anything. If it’s overly savory then I will often add in a few drops of red wine vinegar to elevate it but I appreciate that’s not traditional. If you didn’t use the wine when cooking it, you will probably want to add that vinegar.
Now the pasta sauce goes into a large container and into the fridge once cooled to sit overnight. The flavors will develop and it will taste better the next day.
When ready to serve, put the Bolognese sauce into a pan and gently heat up over low heat. The sauce will emit liquid so cook that down.
Add the linguine to boiling salted water and cook 3 minutes under package instruction. Add the pasta into the sauce and finish cooking the last few minutes in there. Add in a half ladle of pasta water while cooking.
Again finishing each plate or the large serving platter with a bit of grated Parm and a small sprinkling of chopped parsley.
Enjoy! And be prepared to give the recipe out as everyone asks for it.
** Trick for cooking pasta for a large group without overcooking it. If I am serving up more than 1 box of pasta so let’s say 1.5- 2 boxes then I always do this trick. I undercook the pasta by 5 minutes. I finish in the sauce for another 2 minutes and then when I put it into my large serving platter the pasta will steam cook to al dente. As guests are sitting and getting their drinks etc, the pasta is sitting there steaming. Once everyone is sat down, the pasta is then al dente and not overcooked from steaming itself.