/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Don't use meat in a base sauce.

Canned tomatoes are better when tomatoes aren't in season anyways.

Simmering it for hours does do amazing things to it. I simmered mine for five hours on sunday and it was markedly better than other sauces I've made.

Use tomatoes by weight.

My Recipe? Makes about 1 - 1.25 quarts:

56 ounces tomatoes ( canned or fresh)
1 yellow onion, finely diced
4-6 cloves of diced garlic
1 tablespoon dried herb, 3 tablespoons if fresh
1 tablespoon salt
half shredded medium carrot
1/4 cup olive oil

cook garlic and onion in oil until moisture is gone, add carrot, cook another 5-10 minutes,add herb/salt, then add tomatoes ( pureed ) and cook for however long you want - lower temp for longer times.

I made 8 quarts this way sunday and it took about 5 hours to cook down.

Also, 16 ounces sauce for every pound of pasta, maybe less. Use pasta water to help loosen the sauce up some if it's a little too "thick."

I suggest getting Molto Italiano by Mario Batali. Molto Gusto is good too for basic, cheap Italian that's authentic - not amerifat recipes.

I brown the meat, strain the fat and juices off into a container, refrigerate until the fat solidifies, throw the fat away, add the juices back to the sauce.
The problem with adding raw meat to the sauce is that you will never be able to get all of the fat out by skimming. It will turn back into the sauce and result in a sauce that is...well, greasy.
Quality canned tomatoes will prevail in flavor over unripe, out of season fresh tomatoes, always. Buy cans of San Marzano plumb tomatoes. Cento is a good brand. They are pricey, but worth it. Picked at the peak of ripeness.
3 hours is plenty of time.
Don't use stock.
Keep it simple. Onion, carrot, garlic, basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, wine (I prefer white, others red), milk, tomatoes, meat, S&P, is more than enough. If anything, omit some of those ingredients.
/My 2 cents.

>>4015410
That's a terrible list of ingredients for sauce. Disgusting.

Never add meat to a sauce you don't plan on eating soon. Make bolognese fresh, but what you're wanting to do sounds like cheap sauce with meant in it. Not the same thing.

>>4015413
It's Marcella Hazan's ingredients for her recipe "ragu alla bolognese".
lol
Your instructions sound helpful too, though...?

>>4015375
>>4015375
Cooking for hours reduces acidity.

Personally for me a couple of hours is enough for it to get the colour and texture I'm looking for. Once you go over 3 hours the meat starts to break down too much for my liking. In then end just try difernt things until you get the sauce you find suits you best.

Italians use beef, pork, pancetta, carrot, onion, celery, tomatoes, red Wine, stock, milk, extra virgin olive oil, butter, salt & pepper, and cook it for 3-4 hours.

I use extra virgin olive oil, onion, garlic, beef, tomatoes, oregano, italian seasoning, red wine, salt, pepper, cornflour and cook it for 2-2 1/2 hours.

I generally use the italian version as a filling for lasagne and such.

None of the recipes here are for bolognese. Here's the authentic recipe:

To achieve a great result, this sauce should be made fresh every morning and served within a few hours.
INGREDIENTS
Makes approx 2kg
600g coarsely ground lean beef
400g coarsely ground lean pork
200g pancetta diced or chopped
100g chopped onion
100g carrot diced
100g celery diced
1kg tomato peeled (canned)
300ml dry white wine
500ml fresh milk
3 bay leaves
Black pepper and salt to taste
METHOD
Cook the pancetta in a large stainless steel saucepan over a low flame until the fat is melted. Add the onion and stir until the onion is translucent.
Add the carrot, celery and bay leaves and cook until the vegetables start to soften.
Raise the flame to very high and add the ground meats, which should have been mixed and seasoned with salt and black pepper.
Stir until the meat is well-cooked.
Add the white wine and continue to cook on a high heat until all the liquid has evaporated.
Briefly pulse the peeled tomatoes in a food processor and add to the pot.
Continue cooking over a low flame for at least two hours. If it starts to look a little dry, add some beef stock.
Add some milk little-by-little, stirring and cooking over a low heat for a further hour.
Season to taste and leave to rest before serving with tagliatelle.

>>4015481

How do we know this real not fake?

>>4015467
What do you get with the corn flour?
Do you mean cornstarch?
Curious...

>>4015483
It's the 1982 Bolognese Recipe from Bologna, Italy. It's the official city recipe.

>>4015486
lol

>>4015484
Yes, we call it corn flour in Europe.

>>4015489
gotcha

>>4015486
I was looking for that and I've found 3 different recipes claiming to be the official one and they're all different from yours. Can't beat italian efficiency.

>I'm thinking about making it completely from scratch, but might just buy canned tomatoes if I lose ambition

Trust me, fuck canned tomatoes. Fresh or nothing

Also, why exactly does simmering all day do for the taste? Why's it make it better? Especially since you're supposed to add your herbs at the very end, like the last 5 minutes

Marcella Hazan is considered (by some chefs and food writers) to be the godmother of Italian cuisine. I believe that using her recipies is a good way to go, or at least START.
>>4015410
is me.
She uses celery, I do not. I don't like the fiberous strings that do not cook out.
Her grandson wrote a great pasta book that is excellent as a primer for pasta. Giuliano's recipe is what I use when making Ragu. It's a derivitave of his grandmother's.

>>4015497
no no no.
Canned tomatoes are RIPE when canned.
Fresh tomatoes are unripe.
Use dried herbs for a long cook sauce at the begining.
Fresh herbs added at the end of a quick sauce.
Don't go that way for a long simmered sauce. The deepness of the dried herbs, their oils, will play with that long simmer.

>>4015375
Alright nigger. I am a food hipster and I can't cook very well. I can drink like a pro, though.

I've been making a homemade sauce for approximately 1lb of pasta for a while, it's good for lunch the next day.

I use 6 goddamn tomatoes, a whole fucking bulb of garlic, one yellow onion, and one big-motherfuckin bell pepper

I peel all the garlic, put those little shits in a tin foil "cup", and pour some olive oil down that bitch's throat, and put it in the oven with (cleaned) tomatoes, and the bell pepper.

While that shit's in the oven at about 400 degrees for like an hour, you'll start to smell garlic assaulting your fucking faggot nose. That's when you know it's time to check that shit and make sure you're not about to burn your house down.

Sometime while that's cooking, cut your cum-eating onion in to bite sized pieces (unless you're a fucking ogre, in which case you're too fucking dumb to be reading this anyway. Fuck off with your bullshit).

Next you'll want to take all the shit out, peel the tomatoes and bell pepper while they're still hot, and EAT THOSE FUCKING SKINS. They taste good as fuck, and if you don't, all the little niglets in Africa will look at you with sad eyes.

Next you'll want to put the bell pepper in a food processor with the garlic, and make sure that shit's a nice diarrhea-shaped paste. You fucking heard me, mongoloid.

>>4015375
Your onion should be pretty nice and sweaty as your balls by now. Pour the diarrhea mixture over your sweaty-balls onion and mix the FUCK out of it. Add the tomatoes one at a time, and make sure you don't splash your dumb ass with the hot diarrhea.

"BUT ANONYMOUSE, WHAT ABOUT THE SPICES XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD" Fuck you, faggot. Put whatever you want in that shit. Olives? Now's the time. Mushrooms? Fucking right now is when they go in.

Pour that shit over your pasta, oh god. You'll cum so hard, you diarrhea-loving mongoloid.

>>4015514
*San Marzano tomatoes are ripe when canned
I mean.

>>4015523
Sounds like something you'd put in a taco, not on pasta.

>>4015514

I don't quite understand. Are you saying that if I want to simmer for a long time, I should only use dried herbs? Don't they use fresh herbs in italy?

>>4015523
>>4015522

>>4015529
of course!
the delicacies of a fresh herb will get lost in a slow simmered sauce.
Add dried herbs at the beginning.
Fresh herbs are for finishing a sauce.
Dried herbs have more earthy characteristics (not trying to be a food fag, but...)
Those are the rules.

>>4015531

And then if I use dried and simmer for a long time, it'd fuck the sauce up to also add fresh herbs at the end?

I wanted fresh herbs...

>>4015529
should have said, "fresh herbs hate heat".
Consider cilantro. Absolutely useless in a recipe containing heated food. As a garnish for Mexican or Thai food... brilliant!

>>4015536

>brilliant!

Stop talking like that

>>4015534
Not fuck it up, but unnecessary.
By all means, herb it at the end.
Make it your own.
Skip the dried herb, fresh herb for the last 15 mins.
The important part is the tomatoes.
It's going to be good, don't worry. Don't over-think it.

recap:
brown meat, drain, add meat juices back to sauce.
saute veg, dried herbs if using.
add browned meat.
milk if you're using
wine if you're using
reduce until nearly dry
add tomato, simmer
3 hours is plenty
add water as needed
some add tomato paste at the end as a thickener and because it is sweet.
if you are happy with the consistency, just add sugar to balance the flavors.
fresh herbs
serve

http://ask.metafilter.com/37014/Garlic-anyone

This thing says you're supposed to use either garlic OR onions for your sauce, not both. And that cooking your sauce for a long time will kill the garlic flavor

The fuck is this? New rules? God damn

Some pretty excellent tips here. Thanks guys. Didn't realize the whole dried/fresh herb thing. Also going to check out the canned tomatoes.

Can you make a good pasta sauce using Herbes de Provence and Oregano? I fucked up and forgot to go shopping today so that's all I have to work with

Will it be all Frenchy and too weird to eat pasta with?

>>4015510
>I don't like the fiberous strings that do not cook out.
snap the top and bottom of the celery stalk back, and pull up and down to remove the strings, or use a vegetable peeler.

>>4015495

why the fuck should there be one definitive recipe for something that is just a broad description of how a meat sauce is made in one large area

>>4015534

put fresh herbs in at the end. they have appealing qualities the dried ones don't.

the guy advising you doesn't really get what he's talking about. why would drying herbs suddenly make their aroma less volatile? some herbs can stand up to cooking, others can't. doesn't matter if they're fresh or processed. there is no real advantage to using dried apart from convenience/moisture content, etc

Try "San Marzano" Tomatoes (canned). They are the best!

>>4017634
Oregano is used a lot in italian cooking. I'm French and I often use herbes de provence in tomato-based dishes (including tomato sauce) and it tastes very good.

>>4018556
No it is not. Oregano was hardly used in Italian cooking at all until Americans found it super awesome, especially for their interpretations of Italian cuisine in the 1940s.

Thyme is used more than Oregano for tomato based dishes.

>- Does simmering the sauce for an ungodly amount of time actually accomplish anything or is it just redundant? I'm thinking I'll simmer it for 3 hours.
It thickens the sauce & concentrates the flavor.


>- Would introducing too many ingredients be a poor idea?
Depends on the ingredients and if they marry together well


>- If I use fresh tomatoes, how many should I use to make a good amount a sauce (enough for 2 pounds of dry pasta)?
Fuck that bitch, it's your first time. Use two cans of whole peeled tomatoes.

>>4018560
>Oregano was hardly used in Italian cooking at all
Full retard.

>>4018639

stop doing this. be informative.

>>4018658
How about you find a citation saying oregano wasn't popular in Italian cooking until WWII?

Until then:

FULL RETARD.

>>4018661

it still is far from ubiquitous in italian cooking. i don't agree that it was 'hardly used at all' pre-WW2, but that isn't retarded. it is seen as a distinguishing, evocative italian herb by many americans and that is indeed more true of italian-american cuisine.

>>4018661

wikipedia tends to agree with you, and wikipedia is never wrong:

"Oregano's most prominent modern use is as the staple herb of Italian-American cuisine. Its popularity in the US began when soldiers returning from World War II brought back with them a taste for the “pizza herb”,[7] which had probably been eaten in southern Italy for centuries"

One important thing that I never see posted in sauce threads is this:

De-seed your tomatoes.

They make the sauce bitter. You'll never prevent all of the seeds from getting in your sauce, but try to get as many out as possible and your sauce will thank you for it.