FOODlog #272: Bolognese Ragu with Elbow Pasta

Cooked lunch for the family today. My mum is taking a break from cooking today and I haven't cooked in over a month so I was also very glad to cook today and have a change of food instead of our staple rice base meals.

Today I cooked some bolognese. I haven't eaten this in a long time so what better way than to cook it myself. I usually use elbow pasta for bolognese as it binds better with the sauce compared to spaghetti. I also heard that Italians never eat bolognese with pasta as it doesn't combine well with the sauce.

Here are the ingredients I used for my bolognese:

Onions (3 medium sized onions)
Carrots (3 sticks of carrot)
Celery ( 4 stalks of celery)
Tomato puree
Crushed canned tomatoes (600ml)
Minced pork
Evaporated milk

Asides from the evaporated milk and using just pork and no beef, this would otherwise be a classic bolognese recipe. You can use milk instead and add some beef if you like.

First I brown the pork meat in a pan with some boil and seasoned it with salt and pepper. After they are nicely browned, remove the pork and add in the vegetables which I simple diced them and got the carrots I grated them. Sauté the vegetables until they turn a nice vibrant color, about 5 minutes and season them with salt and pepper.

I then add in the tomato puree and cook it with the vegetables for another 5 minutes. Then I add in the canned tomatoes and also the minced pork back to the pan. Next bring the stew to a boil and then simmer on low heat for an hour checking every 10-15 minutes to give it a stir.

After an hour, I add in some pasta water that I cooked my pasta with and also the evaporated milk. Then I let it simmer again. For this last step, you can simmer as long as you wish. The longer the better the sauce is gonna be.

When you're happy with the taste, serve it with some pasta. Super delicious and restaurant quality bolognese right in your own home.