Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese

My one year old will try and mostly eat just about anything so far — she likes pickles, she’s ravenous for beets, she thinks broccoli is great, she devours sourdough like a fiend. But she is picky in terms of quality. She won’t eat bits and pieces of cobbled together leftovers, she knows and handily rejects beans that are stale, she notices if her food is different from the adults’. Purees are out of the question (even mashed potatoes are too suspiciously like baby food for her taste).

Even with all of her food enthusiasm, I have never, ever, seen her eat with as much gusto as she ate Marcella Hazan’s bolognese. (Close second: this beef stew.) Between industrious slurps, punctuated by “MMM”s, there was impatient huffing and flailing fists while she waited for her fork to be loaded. She is head over heels for this dish, and with good reason: it’s delish.

This is a pretty straightforward bolognese: a soffritto (carrot, onion, celery sauté) base with ground beef gently simmered in milk and then tomatoes. It requires patience - this isn’t a difficult dish in terms of chopping or technique, but it is absolutely a waiting game. Make sure you let the milk fully evaporate before adding the tomatoes, and then let those tomatoes just barely bubble all afternoon. The wait is so worth it for the outcome: creamy, decadently rich sauce tossed with steaming pasta.

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Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese

Time: 1 hour active, several hours simmering || Servings: 6 || Source: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

• Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp

• Butter - 4 tbsp

• Onion - 1/2 cup, chopped

• Celery - 2/3 cup, chopped

• Carrot - 2/3 cup, chopped

• Ground beef chuck - 3/4 lb (a higher fat content will make a sweeter sauce)

• Whole milk - 1 cup

• Whole nutmeg, for grating

• White wine - 1 cup

• Canned tomatoes - 1 1/2 cup, cut up or crushed with their juices

• Pasta - 1 1/2 pounds, typically tagliatelle

• Parmesan for garnish

• Salt & pepper

In a dutch oven or other heavy bottomed pot, heat the oil and butter over medium. Place the onion in the pot and cook until tender and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add celery and carrot and cook for an additional 2 minutes, stirring.

Add the ground beef, a large pinch of salt (don’t be shy), and several grinds of pepper. The salt will help to release the juices of the beef, dispersing flavor into the sauce. Break up the beef as it cooks, until it’s started to brown - some pinkness is fine.

Add the milk. Simmer, stirring regularly, until the milk has simmered away completely. This will take time - as long as 20 minutes in my experience. If you keep the heat low, you can just stir now and then as you pass through the kitchen, perhaps opening and sipping the wine you’re about to use. When the milk has evaporated, add a few gratings of nutmeg to the pot and stir.

Add the wine and, as with the milk, let it simmer until evaporated.

Add the tomatoes to the pot. Rather than chop them, I usually crush them with my hands as they go into the pot. Stir thoroughly, then bring to a lazy, barely bubbling simmer. Cook, uncovered, for a minimum of 3 hours and longer if you have time - up to 5, 6 hours. (You can shut off the heat and resume cooking again later within the same day if you don’t have several continuous hours to keep an eye on it.) Stir every once in a while, adding 1/2 cup water if the sauce looks dry; typically, I have to do this a few times over the course of cooking. When you’re ready to take the sauce off of the heat, make sure all of the water has evaporated. Toss with cooked, drained pasta (tagliatelle is classic) and one tablespoon of butter. Serve with parmesan cheese on the side.

This sauce works well made a few days ahead and freezes well - if cold, simmer for 15 minutes before using.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Summer is dwindling away and I am so excited for all the amazing fall produce that’s coming our way. I got some insanely good Wildfire Gala apples in my farm share (fun fact: these are one of the first apple varieties of the season). A little apple crisp à la Bittman combined with a drop in temperature was just what I needed to get me in the mood for autumn.

But before we kick summer to the curb, it’s time for a last hurrah with gorgeous late-season tomatoes. Those tomatoes have been so good to us all summer - sliced and salted with some olive oil (or not); chunkily chopped on bread with lettuce and mayo, maybe some bacon, because bacon; diced with garlic and basil for easy peasy bruschetta… I might just shed a tear.

One of the simplest ways to enjoy fresh tomatoes is to make a straightforward tomato sauce. This summer, I’ve been loving a raw tomato sauce: olive oil lazily infused with some smashed garlic cloves and basil all day, then, a couple of hours before eating, mix in tomatoes that have been chopped and salted. Drop in some pasta and maybe some fresh mozzarella and you have a meal. Sometimes, though, I want something a little smoother and, frankly, a little more freezable. (I’ve never canned anything in my life - the idea that I would do it wrong, contaminate my family’s food, and make everyone sick haunts me - but it might just be time to start looking into it because my freezer is full to bursting.)

This tomato sauce is a little more complex, but it doesn’t detract from the tomatoes on bit - and it’s well worth it. It only takes about 15 minutes of hands on time, and then it can simmer away unattended for quite a while if you’d like to really develop the flavor. I don’t mind keeping it short and sweet - I rarely have a lengthy prep time before blood sugar levels drop dangerously in my household - and this sauce doesn’t suffer from having a bit of fresh tomatoeyness about it.

I’m always pretty excited about eating a giant bowl of pasta, and cheese is definitely a factor in that. I maybe have gone a little overboard with two cheeses in the sauce and one on top, but go big or go home. I used both Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano in the sauce as almost a seasoning. These are two delicious, highly regulated Italian cheeses, made from cow and sheep’s milk respectively. From its nubby size, you may detect that I use Parmigiano quite a bit - it’s nutty and it adds umami to whatever it touches. Pecorino is a bit more unique, salty with a tang from the sheep’s milk. Finally, to get creaminess and that cheese pull that will follow you into your dreams, top steaming pasta with fresh mozzarella.

You can use less cheese if you really want. And would this still be very good with a high quality canned tomato? Absolutely, and I don’t doubt I’ll be doing that in a couple of months. Similarly, you could substitute dried oregano and basil for the fresh, keeping in mind that dried herbs have a much more concentrated flavor (roughly substitute 1 tsp dried herb per 1 tbsp fresh herb). Make this your own: add more garlic; change up the herbs; leave your sauce chunky. Personally, I recommend all the cheese.

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Fresh Tomato Sauce

Servings: 4-6 || Time: 45 mins || Inspiration: Summer tomatoes

• Olive oil - 2 tbsp

• Onion - 1 medium, diced

• Garlic - 2 cloves, minced or crushed

• Fresh tomatoes - 1.5 lbs, roughly chopped

• Fresh herbs, such as oregano, thyme, basil - 1 tbsp each, chopped

• Parmigiano-reggiano - 2 tbsp, grated

• Pecorino-romano - 2 tbsp, grated

Heat olive oil in a medium-large skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until it begins to turn translucent. Add garlic. Once garlic has turned golden, but before it browns, add the tomatoes and fresh herbs of your choice. Season with salt and pepper.

Turn heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes have begun to break down and release their juices.

Bring to a low simmer and cook 15 minutes more, until tomatoes are very broken up and a sauce begins to form. You may continue to cook past this point, for 30 minutes more - if at any point the pan looks dry, add water to prevent burning or sticking. When sauce is cooked to your liking, stir in the cheeses.

For a smoother sauce, pass through a food mill (I used the coarsest grind) or blend in a food processor.

Toss sauce with your favorite pasta and top with chopped or torn mozzarella. Or freeze to lock away a little bit of summer.

Use-Up-Your-Vegetables Pasta

Sometimes you make something that is just so so good you can’t possibly imagine what else you could be making for dinner because why in the world would you eat something else when you could be eating THIS?

Since this is our third time making this dish this week, I would say we’re pretty solidly in the realm of obsession.

I’ve mentioned previously that we’ve been having a glut of corn, and now the tomatoes have piled up as well. Not that I’m complaining about too much deliciousness cluttering my counter - I know I’ll mock this “problem” of late summer bounty when we’re in the deep dark depths of winter. And yes, yes, I know I can absolutely make a simple tomato sauce that will freeze beautifully and - once rediscovered, thawed, and tossed with pasta one frosty December day - will make my eyes tear up with memories of beach days and tank tops. But that doesn’t so much solve the problem of dinner tonight. And, so was born Use-Up-Your-Vegetables pasta.

Is this really a recipe? I don’t know. Is it an ode to all the flavors of summer, a true honor to corn, eggplant, and tomatoes? YES.

At its core, this “recipe” is no more than sautéing a few gorgeous vegetables - corn, eggplant, onion, garlic, tomato - in olive oil, smothering them with cheese, and tossing them with pasta. Incredibly easy and incredibly satisfying.

“But I don’t have corn,” you say, smugly surveying your gleaming, cornsilk-free countertops. No problem! in the spirit of using up your vegetables, use what you have on hand. Skip the corn, add the green beans. Got zucchini? Wonderful, toss it in! You can’t really go wrong with bright, fresh summer vegetables. I kind of think you’ll be obsessed with this, too.

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Use-Up-Your-Vegetables Pasta

Servings: 4-6 || Time: 30 minutes || Inspiration: Late summer vegetable bounty

• Olive oil - 2-4 tbsp

• Onion, white or yellow - 1 small, diced

• Corn kernels - about 1 cup, cut from 2 ears of corn (frozen could work)

• Eggplant - 1 medium, diced

• Garlic - 2 cloves, minced

• Tomatoes - 3 medium, diced

• Farfalle pasta or other forkable shape - 1 lb

• Parmesan - grated, to taste

• Herbs, like basil, parsley, cilantro, or tarragon for garnish

Set a large pot of salted water over high heat to come to a boil.

Meanwhile, set a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and heat until shimmering. Add onion and sauté until it begins to turn translucent. Add corn kernels, season with salt and pepper, and sauté until they start to brown. Add eggplant and season once more. The eggplant will absorb a lot of the oil, so add a bit more if needed to prevent burning. Cook, stirring occasionally, until eggplant is browned. Add garlic, sauté until fragrant, then add tomatoes. Continue to cook, stirring here and there, for 10-15 minutes more while the pasta cooks. Turn down heat as necessary to maintain a low simmer.

Once water is boiling, add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water, and add to sauce. Toss the sauce and the pasta together. Transfer to a bowl.

Top pasta with Parmesan. Your sauce may need a little help to get saucy and marry with the pasta, especially if you use a less juicy type of tomato, like plum tomatoes. Add pasta water to the bowl, using a 1/4 cup at a time, and toss with pasta until you get a satisfying squelchy sound and the pasta looks well coated with sauce. Top with perhaps a little more cheese (why not?) and the chopped herbs of your choice.