Ragù Bolognese alla Quarantena

Ragù Bolognese is a true comfort food, a welcome quasi-nostalgia in this time of uncertainty as we deal with the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus. Because of this new virus, I’ve had to make some changes to how I prepare Ragù, so this is not a traditional recipe as would be seen in Italy by any means, but it’s similar enough that I’ve coopted the name and adapted a few elements of this classic to make it my own, in part to leave my individual mark on the dish as a home chef, in part because I had to since supplies were limited because of the virus-related lockdowns.

Technically, I’ve only made a proper Ragù Bolognese once or twice since coming home from campus back in March, while we still had wine at home. We haven’t had wine since our only bottle finished very early in the pandemic, and because wine requires handing over an ID for age verification in Georgia, to limit contact with others when we go out, we haven’t bought any in months. Technically, Ragù Bolognese is a simple meat, wine, and stock sauce with a proportionately very small amount of a tomato product (usually highly concentrated tomamto paste, which is just a tomato sauce left over the heat for hours and hours). But since we’ve been out of wine for months now—and we probably won’t get more wine until well into 2021—I’ve made several changes to Ragù Bolognese to fit what we have at home during the quarantines imposed because of the Coronavirus. And while Ragù Bolognese is typically made with ground beef and/or ground pork and/or ground veal, we’ve been using ground turkey since the pandemic broke out. 

My variation on the sauce, in common with the traditional version, starts with browning ground meat: in my case, turkey (traditionally, any combination of beef, pork, and veal). I start with enough olive oil to coat the bottom of my 3-quart sauté pan (or my 9-quart Dutch oven, if the grocery store’s substitutions give me much more meat than I asked for), and I leave it over high heat for several minutes. The oil should be hot enough that a quarter of a teaspoon of water evaporates almost instantly—3 seconds or less—before any meat ever touches the pan. Once the pan is hot enough, the ground meat can go in. When it goes in, it’s okay if the entire block of ground meat goes in as one piece. You will need to stir pretty constantly until it’s broken up into individual grounds of meat. Ground meat doesn’t immediately brown. Before it can do that, it needs to release some moisture which then needs to evaporate. (Don’t worry, this won’t be dry or gummy.) Once the moisture is released and evaporated, the meat will begin to fry in the oil and in its own rendered fat. It takes some time to learn to tell the difference, but the two parts of the browning process sound different.

As with many of the recipes I’ll share, mise en place (“putting everything in its proper place” by having everything chopped, washed, processed, etc. ahead of time) is critical. Part of mise en place here is to process 5 tomatoes, 2 red bell peppers, and one yellow onion until smooth and emulsified (to where you cannot distinguish pieces of tomato from pepper from onion, and you are left with a relatively thick, red liquid in your blender). Once the meat has been browned, this mixture (about 32 ounces of liquid) should go into the pan with the browned meat. Further, add one cup of cartooned, homemade, or reconstituted chicken stock (stock from a powder or bouillon cube is fine). Season with dried oregano, thyme, bay, and dill. Grind in fresh black pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every 7 minutes or so. If the sauce starts to evaporate too quickly, add in more stock. When the sauce is otherwise complete, taste for salt—you added chicken stock, which may have a considerable amount of salt in it already, so taste the sauce before you add any more salt. 

Cook one pound of long pasta (fettucine, spaghetti, pappardelle, etc.) to one minute short of what the manufacturer lists as the time for al dente pasta. At that point, drain the pasta, and finish the last 60 seconds folding the pasta into the ragù. Serve garnished with parmesan and or pecorino romano. 

If you make this, be sure to leave a comment down below letting me know!