Chat GPT's Spaghetti Bolognese

Spaghetti Bolognese is a classic Italian dish made with a meat-based sauce and served over spaghetti noodles. Here's a recipe along with an explanation of why each step is important:

Ingredients:
-1 lb. ground beef
-1 onion, finely chopped   
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-1 can of diced tomatoes
-1 cup of beef broth
-1 tbsp. tomato paste
-1 tsp. dried basil
-1 tsp. dried oregano
-1 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. black pepper
-1 lb. spaghetti
-2 tbsp. olive oil
-Parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions:

Cook the spaghetti: Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling, salted water until al dente. Why: The spaghetti is the base of the dish and must be cooked first to ensure that it's ready when the sauce is ready.


(Andre's commentary: It's true that we want he sauce to finish in time with the pasta-- or even for the sauce to be ready before the pasta-- but timing it like this seems like not nearly enough time. In my home kitchen with a relatively high-powered stove, I can boil a gallon of water and cook my pasta in about 30 minutes. That's not enough time for bolognese. Let's  see if GPT catches that mistake)


Heat the olive oil: In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Why: The oil prevents the ingredients from sticking to the pan and helps to distribute heat evenly.

(Perfect explanation! The development of a fond from the soffrito-- onions, carrots, celery, garlic, etc.-- and the meat is crucial to a good Bolognese, and the oil helps create an even heat transfer mechanism to facilitate even cooking and browning. Good job, GPT!)


Sauté the onion: Add the chopped onion and minced garlic to the skillet and sauté until the onion is translucent. Why: The onion and garlic add flavor to the dish and cooking them until translucent helps to release their natural sweetness.

(The most traditional Italians would say that celery and carrots are missing from this vegetable base, but if you don't like or don't have celery and carrots available, just onions and garlic are perfectly fine. Props to GPT for telling you to sweat the onions, i.e., to cook off their moisture without adding color. After all, this is Bolognese, not French Onion soup.)


Cook the beef: Add the ground beef to the skillet and cook until browned, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Why: The beef is the main source of protein and must be cooked thoroughly to ensure that it's safe to eat. Breaking it up into smaller pieces helps it cook more evenly.

(A few good points here: the beef goes in after the onions, garlic, etc., so that the alliums can serve as a flavor base. Textbook technique. Way to go! However, it's traditional in Italian cuisine to not just use pure beef-- but to mix equal parts of ground beef, pork, and veal. If you don't have, don't like, or cannot eat pork or veal, skip it, and just follow GPT's instructions to just use beef, or substitute with another ground protein like chicken or turkey. Again, props to GPT for pointing out that you need to break up the protein as it browns. If you miss this step, you'll end up with oddly-textured pseudo-meatballs-- not Bolognese, not spaghetti and meatballs.)

Add the tomato products: Stir in the diced tomatoes, beef broth, tomato paste, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Why: The tomato products add flavor and texture to the sauce, and simmering the sauce for 20 minutes allows the flavors to meld and the sauce to thicken.

(Traditionally, I'm not quite sure why GPT wants to include both tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Just one is fine, and if I had to choose, I'd go with the paste. Just a few tablespoons are all you need for this much sauce. No more than half a tube. GPT is absolutely right that Bolognese is, at its heart, not a tomato sauce, but a meat/stock/wine sauce with a little tomato in it. Most consumers-- and GPT-- probably don't know the difference between stock and broth, so I'll let that slide; either is fine. Beef stock is the most traditional, but you can use chicken, turkey, or vegetable if you don't have beef. But this also brings us to the biggest problem I pointed out earlier with GPT's recipe: it only asks that you simmer the sauce for 20 minutes. That's at best 1/3 of how much time a Bolognese should simmer, if not 1/12 of the time. 20 minutes is nowhere near enough, and 1 hour is a much more realistic minimum. If you have time, 2-4 hours is best. But be sure to add water as the sauce reduces over that time to prevent anything from burning. )

Serve: Serve the sauce over the cooked spaghetti, and top with grated Parmesan cheese (optional). Why: The sauce is the centerpiece of the dish and must be served over the spaghetti to create the classic spaghetti Bolognese experience. The Parmesan cheese adds a salty, nutty flavor that complements the sauce.

(GPT made a slight mistake here: just putting the sauce over the pasta isn't quite enough. We need to undergo the process of mixing/tossing, called "mantecatura" in Italian, from the word for "buttering up" to evenly coat each strand of pasta in the sauce. You can be chef-y, and toss with just the leverage of the pan, but if that is too difficult, spoons or tongs work just as well. On the other hand, I definitely want to give credit to GPT for having picked parmigiano reggiano-- the right kind of cheese to top this dish, since authentic reggiano is and can be made in Bologna.)