Spaghetti with minced meat

Spaghetti with minced meat is how Greeks call their version of this dish. It contains different spices and herbs and it does not contain any other meat than the ground one.

Ingredients:
500gr minced beef
1 big onion chopped
3-4 table spoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of white dry wine
400 gr of chopped tomatoes
4-5 cloves
1 tea spoon of ground cinnamon or 1 cinnamon bark
3 table spoons of chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper

Preparation

• Chop the onion and fry it in a saucepan with heated olive oil until it gets a golden shade
•  Add the minced beef and stir until it gets brown
• Pour the wine and stir for 1 minute
• Add the chopped tomatoes, the cloves, the cinammon, salt and pepper
• Add 1 cap of water and put the lid on. Bring to the boil and then reduce in medium-low and cook for 45 minutes
• Add the chopped parsley at 45 minutes and continue cooking for 15 minutes and it is ready

Notes: Be careful to check out every now and then whether there is enough liquid in the saucepan. Minced meat needs a lot of salt. Taste it before the end to see whether you need to adjust salt.

Classical Ragu Alla Bolognese from the Simili sisters

Margherita and Valeria Simili are the Italian twin sisters who have been making pasta since they were barely old enough to stand and began working in the family baking business in Bologna in 1946. They had created their own cooking school in the past and are now teaching in cooking courses all over the world. Their name is well respected in Italy where they made television appearances and were guest chefs of the most exclusive kitchens. They have published three books in Italian and this is their suggestion of classic Ragu Alla Bolognese.

Ingredients
25 g butter
50 g pancetta or prosciutto di Parma, chopped
500 g beef, ground (scanello or cartella)
500 g tomatoes, peeled and pureed
2 spoons of onion, chopped
2 spoons of celery, chopped
2 spoons carrot, chopped
1 chicken liver, chopped
1/ cup white wine, dry
2 cups milk
2 cups of broth
Salt, pepper, a hint of nutmeg, 2 spoons oil

Preparation

• Chop the vegetables separately.
• Chop the pancetta.
• Prepare the chicken liver. Clean it well. Be sure to remove the slightest trace of green bile, because if not the chicken liver will be very bitter. Don’t chop it but rather crush it with the blade of a knife and separate the nerve fibres from the pieces of flesh and, once done completely, chop the pieces with a knife alone. This should be carried out with care, because if nerve fibres stay attached to the liver, it will not amalgamate well with the other ingredients and so its flavour will be too strong.
• Have the wine within reach.
• Have the milk close to the stovetop.
• Place the tomato and broth in a saucepan on a low flame.
• Place the butter and the oil in the pan, then immediately add the onion.
• Sauté the onion slowly, stirring continuously.
• At first the fats become milky and the aroma very harsh due to the presence of the vegetable effluents of the onion.
• As soon as this temperament has been absorbed, the fats will once again clarify and the aroma sweeten. At this point, and not a moment before, add the celery and a minute later the carrot. If the three vegetables were sautéed together, the other two would absorb the juice of the onion, the flavour of which is so intense that it would hide the more delicate flavours of the celery and the carrot thus turning the three into onion.
• As soon as this base is ready, add the pancetta and let it sauté a minute.
• So now it’s the chicken liver’s turn. Free the centre of the pan by moving all the vegetables to the edge. Chicken liver coagulates immediately and it would cling to any ingredient in its vicinity and impart its flavour to it, which would become too intense. Therefore, place the chicken liver in the middle of the pan alone, continuously flattening and stirring it until it completely changes colour, which shows that it has cooked. Then and only then, bring the vegetables back to the middle of the pan and stir everything together for a moment.
• And next, the beef – a delicate moment. In order to avoid turning the beef into, for all intents and purposes, broth, a few seconds after having added the other ingredients, proceed in the following manner: bring the flame to the maximum and after a moment add a third of the beef by flaking it into the pan, then with a wooden spatula, flattening and turning it over continuously while leaving the bottom of the pan partially uncovered in order that the moisture that forms will evaporate rather than turn into liquid. As soon as this part of the beef has changed its colour partially, free the middle of the pan again and add, flake and mix another third of the beef as with the first third and then, once again in the middle, add the last third.
• Once all the beef is sautéed, add a first part of the wine, not by pouring it onto the beef but rather around the edge of the pan because cold ingredients should not be poured upon the bubbling hot beef. This way, when the wine arrives to the beef, it will certainly already be heated. Don’t pour in all the wine in one dose; let it evaporate over two or three doses. The wine will have completely evaporated, not when you see it disappear as liquid from the pan but rather when you can’t detect its aroma any more.
• At this point add the hot milk in two or three doses and let it be absorbed until it has formed a nice cream.
• Pepper and salt.
• Transfer the concoction to a smaller and higher pot in order to avoid that it evaporates too quickly while cooking.
• Add the hot tomato and broth; adjust the flame to hold the ragù at a simmer for around two hours while stirring often.

Necessary Utensils
Large pan
Small and tall terracotta pot
Crashing knife

The Authentic Official Classic Bolognese Sauce

On October 17, 1982, the Bolognese Chapter of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina has declared the following recipe as the official classic ragu bolognese sause. They had researched this matter for years and finally the experts have agreed upon. The document, which includes the official recipe, is deposited in the Palazzo della Mercanzia, the headquarter of Chamber of Commerce, to endure the memory of the gastronomic culture of Bologna.

Ingredients
300 gr. ground beef cartella (thin skirt)
150 gr. pancetta, dried
50 gr. carrot
50 gr. celery stalk
50 gr. onion
5 spoons tomato sauce or 20 gr. triple tomato extract
1/2 cup white or red wine
1 cup whole milk

Necessary Utensils
terracotta saucepan of 20 cm diameter
wooden spoon
mezzaluna chopping knife

Cooking
Cut the pancetta into little tubes and chop it with a mezzaluna chopping knife. Then melt it in a saucepan. Chop the vegetables (carrot, cerely and onion) and add them to the saucepan and left them to stew softly. Next, you add the ground beef and stir it until the sizzling starts. Add the 1/2 glass of wine and the tomato and everything is left to simmer for two hours, adding little by little the milk and adjusting the salt and pepper. Optional but recommended it to add, at the end of the cooking, the cream that topped a litre of whole milk, after being boiled.

And the authentic recipe in Italian, as kept in the Palazzo della Mercanzia, is:

Ingredienti:
gr. 300 di cartella di manzo
gr. 150 di pancetta distesa
gr. 50 di carota gialla
gr. 50 di costa di sedano
gr. 50 di cipolla
5 cucchiai di salsa di pomodoro oppure gr. 20 di concentrato triplo di pomodoro
1/2 bicchiere di vino bianco o rosso
1 bicchiere di latte intero

Utensili necessari:
tegame di terracotta di diametro circa 20 cm
cucchiaio di legno
coltello a mezzaluna

Procedimento:
Si scioglie nel tegame la pancetta tagliata a dadini e tritata con la mezzaluna; si aggiungono le verdure ben tritate con la mezzaluna e si lasciano appassire dolcemente; si aggiunge la carne macinata e la si lascia, rimescolando sino a che "sfrigola"; si mette il 1/2 bicchiere di vino e il pomodoro allungato con poco brodo e si lascia sobbolllire per circa 2 ore aggiungendo, volta a volta, il latte e aggiustando di sale e pepe nero; facoltativa ma consigliabile l'aggiunta, a cottura ultimata, della panna di cottura di un litro di latte intero.

Buon appetito