Tagliatelle alla Bolognese

Tonight's dinner was tagliatelle alla Bolognese... it's sooo delicious!

The Final Presentation: Tagliatelle alla Bolognese

Ok, folks, I'm not gonna lie, this one is a little labor intensive. It's also 1000% percent worth every minute you put into it. I love to make my own pasta and have attachments for my KitchenAid mixer that make it super easy - if you don't, you can use dried fettuccine as a substitute.

Fresh Pasta!

The key to this dish is the soffritto, the mixture of carrot, onion and celery. You may remember this from some of my other food posts, as soffritto is the key to many Italian sauces, stocks, stews and soups. It's also used in French cooking (mirepoix), German cooking (suppengrün), Spanish cooking (sofrito) and Polish cooking (włoszczyzna). This conjures up that absolutely amazing "something's cooking" smell that will stick in your house long after you've snarfed the last noodle. I think they should make a candle.

Glorious Soffritto

It's also pretty tasty once you add in the pancetta, ground pork and ground beef:

Everything Is Better With Beef & Pork!

Ok, for those of you patiently waiting, here is the recipe:

Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 small carrots, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 ounces thick-cut pancetta, chopped
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground beef chuck
1/2 cup dry red wine, such as Barbera
1 cup drained, chopped canned Roma tomatoes (aka plum tomatoes)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups beef stock, plus more as needed
1 cup whole milk (I just use my fat free milk, but I'm sure whole would be yummy)
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pound fresh egg pasta dough
Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions
To make the Bolognese sauce, in a Dutch oven or other large, heavy pot over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add the carrots, celery, onion and pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients are tender and a rich golden brown, about 30 minutes. If the ingredients begin to brown too much, reduce the heat and stir in a spoonful or two of warm water.

Add the ground meats to the pot and stir well. Raise the heat to medium and cook, breaking up the meats with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned and crumbly and their juices have evaporated, about 20 minutes.

Add the wine and deglaze the pot, scraping up the browned bits from the pot bottom. Cook until the wine evaporates, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, the tomato paste, the 2 cups stock, the milk, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and the nutmeg. Cook the mixture until it just begins to simmer, then reduce the heat to very low and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about 1 hour. If the sauce becomes too thick or threatens to scorch, add a little more stock.

Partially cover the pot and continue cooking the sauce on the lowest heat setting until it is thick and dark brown, 1 - 1 1/2 hours longer. When the sauce is ready, use a large spoon to skim off and discard any fat that floats on the surface. Cover the pan and set aside.

While the sauce is simmering, make the pasta dough, then divide and roll out each piece into a sheet 1/16 inch thick. Cut the pasta into tagliatelle and let dry for 10-20 minutes.

Bring a large pot three-fourths full of water to a rolling boil and add about 2 tablespoons salt. Add the tagliatelle, stir well, and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente, 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, reheat the sauce over medium-low heat. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and/or nutmeg.

When the tagliatelle is ready, scoop out and reserve about 2 ladlefuls of the cooking water, then drain the pasta. Add the drained pasta to the sauce in the pot and stir and toss until well coated with the sauce, adjusting the consistency with some of the cooking water if needed. Serve with fresh grated cheese.