ATK Bolognese Sauce

The sauce will be deliberately watery. This is so that al-dente pasta can be added to the sauce later, which will absorb its moisture. To make it less watery, cook all or part of the last step with the lid off. You can use less than 93% lean beef, but the sauce will turn out more greasy.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Dissolve baking soda in the water, then gently mix it and the pepper into the ground beef.

Step 2

Pulse the pancetta in a food processor 15-20 pulses - until no big chunks are left. If you substitute bacon, make sure it's not smoked, or your sauce will taste smoky.

Step 3

Add onion, celery, and carrot and mix another 15 pulses.

Step 4

Brown butter with olive oil over medium-high heat until foaming starts to subside. Add the pancetta mixture.

Step 5

Add another 1/4 tsp of black pepper and cook for about 8min. No need to distribute it around the pot at this stage - we're just cooking out the moisture for now.

Step 6

Meanwhile, reduce beef broth in a pot by 1/2, about 15min.

Step 7

Spread the pancetta mixture evenly over the bottom of the pot and brown for about 10min. Keep stirring so that everything has a turn to brown evenly.

Step 8

Mix in tomato paste and cook for another 1-2min.

Step 9

Reduce heat to Medium and add the beef. Cook for about 5min while breaking into pieces. Scrape off the fond.

Step 10

Add red wine and cook another 5min.

Step 11

Add 2 cups reduced beef broth.

Step 12

Add the parmesan cheese and bring to a simmer.

Step 13

Turn down to low, cover, and cook for 30min. To make a thicker sauce, don't cover for the entire duration.

Step 14

At this point, you can choose to cook pasta until it's just al-dente and add into sauce to finish cooking. Fettuccine is a good choice here.