tagliatelle alla bolognese.

Execution

1. start the sauce.

• In a large saucepan, add olive oil and the bone marrow, set to low heat and let the bone marrow melt. Once it has melted add the carrots, celery, onion and a small pinch of salt. Allow to cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

2. brown the meat.

• As the vegetables cook, heat a saute pan over high heat. Remove the casings of the sausage and add to the pan alongside a touch of oil. Allow the sausage to brown and cook thoroughly. While cooking, continue to stir and break the sausage with a wooden spoon. Once the sausage is browned and has rendered most of its fat, remove the sausage from the pan onto a tray lined with paper towel to remove any excess fat. Add the sausage to the vegetable pot.

• Return the pan back to high heat, add a touch of oil, once the oil starts to simmer, season the short ribs with salt and brown evenly on each side, remove from the pan and repeat with the oxtails and beef cheeks.

• After browning the short ribs you will deglaze the pan with white wine and add the juices to the vegetable pot, repeat this with the oxtail and cheeks as well.

• Preferably you would season each piece of beef with salt the night before cooking. This would allow for a drier exterior which enables better browning on each piece of meat, also the salt would be able to penetrate deeper.

3. cook the sauce.

• Once the sausage has been added to the pot and the vegetables have lost majority of their moisture, add the tomato paste and garlic. Once the tomato paste has caramelized (you will know it is caramelized when it starts sticking to the bottom of the pot and turns brown, the color will change to a dark red and you will notice a strong, sweet, nutty tomato aroma), add the remainder of the white wine, and reduce the liquid by half.

• Add the short ribs, beef cheeks and oxtails to the pot and cover with the chicken stock.

• Tie the rosemary and thyme together with butcher’s twine and add to the sauce, alongside the bay leaves.

• Set the pot to a medium-low flame and let simmer for 2-3 hours or until the meat is very tender, cover with a lid slightly ajar.

4. make tagliatelle.

• Follow the recipe for pasta dough here: pasta dough.

• Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough until its about 1cm thick.

• Pass the dough through a pasta rolling machine until its 1.5mm thick.

• Dust the sheet of dough with flour then fold the sheet in half, then half again. It should be shaped like a rectangular log.

• Using a sharp knife, cut off the uneven edges, then cut the log into 9mm thick ribbons.

• Using your hands, unravel the pasta and dust with flour to prevent from sticking.

• Tie the pasta into a nest and place onto a baking tray. Wrap the tray with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 days of freeze for 3-4 weeks.

5. finish the sauce, remove and chop the meat.

• Turn off the heat and remove the oxtails, beef cheeks and short rib, place the meat onto a baking tray and into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.

• Remove the bay leaves, thyme and rosemary and discard.

• Add the sauce to a blender and blitz until smooth.

• Remove the bones from the oxtails and chop all of the meat into small chunks.

• Add the meat back to the sauce.

• Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

6. serve.

• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. It should be salty like the sea.

• Add a few ladleful’s of Bolognese to a sauté pan and add the milk, keep warm over low heat until the pasta is ready.

• Once the water is boiling add the pasta, cook until it starts to float and is al dente.

• Transfer the pasta to the sauté pan and add a few spoonful’s of pasta water, increase the heat to medium-high, add a tablespoon of olive oil and toss the pasta with the sauce until the sauce is fully emulsified and the pasta is cooked through.

• Plate the pasta and serve with additional sauce from pan, a few cranks of black pepper and grated parm.

• Serve alongside crusty bread to drag through the leftover sauce on the plate.