Fabio's Perfect Bolognese

Chow Ciao































After sharing some easy tips for cooking with wine, Fabio shows Dayana Mendoza (Miss Universe) the trick to whipping up a perfect Ragu (meat sauce), the same luxurious Italian staple he serves over pasta in his own restaurant.


Tips:

  • For a perfect meat sauce, don't use ultra-lean meats: a little fattier meat means more FLAVOR! Try to get fresh ground from your butcher loosely packed for better texture. When ground beef is packed tightly in a log, it's harder to break apart and put into your sauce.

  • A perfect Italian meat sauce is built by layering flavors. Caramelize sliced carrots, celery and onion together first to make an intense base for your sauce.

  • Cooking with Wine 101: The wine you drink won't always be the wine you cook with, but the wine you cook with should always be wine you would drink! An easy rule is to use red for stronger flavors, and whites for more delicate ones.

  • Bolognese sauce originated in Bologna, Italy during the 1800s, but has evolved greatly across the globe. The Bolognese people are very militant about the use of their namesake for sauces that they don't think fit the bill. While they might not approve of Fabio's meat sauce, you certainly will!

Bolognese Sauce

Recipe by Fabio Viviani

Yields: 2-3 quarts of sauce

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. light olive oil

2 cups celery, diced

2 cups carrots, diced

2 cups onion, diced

1 sprig rosemary

1 sprig sage

5 cloves garlic, smashed

1 cup white wine

2 lbs. ground beef

2 cups red wine

2 cups Fabio's Marinara Sauce

1 cup tomato paste

salt and pepper, to taste

**See the recipe for Fabio's fresh fettucine noodles

Method:

Heat a large sauce pan over medium high heat,

Add olive oil and allow to heat up on the flame.

Add celery, carrots, and onion, rosemary and sage and cook until caramelized.

Add crushed garlic, then deglaze with white wine and reduce to almost dry.

Add ground beef and cook until no traces of pink can be found.

Add red wine to deglaze and reduce.

Add marinara sauce then tomato paste, and reduce until thick and rich.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

MANGIA!

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