Giuliano's beef ragu pasta sauce

From The Classic Pasta Cookbook. I love this book. Giuliano taught me how to make fresh pasta from this book. There is a great arrabiata sauce in there, as well as some very simple and some very different pasta dishes.
The one I cook all the time though is his bolognese, or beef ragu. In his version, there is no garlic, but that doesn't actually compute with me so I usually throw in a clove or seven. Otherwise I have remained fairly faithful to Giuly. He's like a friendly round bearded mate in the kitchen, saying: "Don't worry. Mum or I would never lead you astray. Make the pasta, make the sauce, sing, eat, enjoy! Buon appetito!"

So, here is my version of Giuliano's awesome ragu. Who cares about the precise quantities...

• Finely chopped onion


• Minced or chopped garlic


• Beef mince


• Carrot


• Celery


• Full-cream milk (it won't work if it's not the real deal... I tried to use Trim once... bleck)


• Dry white wine or rose


• Couple of tins of tomatoes, chopped, or a bag of chopped fresh ones and some tomato paste


• Nutmeg


• Olive oil and unsalted butter
  
• Salt
  
• Thyme and parsley
  
• Pecorino or REAL parmesan ( you know what I mean)

Put the onion and garlic in a giant pot with the oil and butter. Cook them down till they are less pungent and more soft, but not brown. Dice the carrots and celery pieces into little mini-cubes and throw them in. Wait till they change colour, then in with the mince and salt. Brown the mince, stirring so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Pour in the wine (actually you might need a quantity here: no more than 2 cups, depending on how much mince and vegies you've got. Just don't use too much.) Cook it on a pretty good flame until it loses that alcohol smell, then in with the milk, nutmeg and tomatoes. Don't drain the tomatoes! The milk is probably going to curdle at this point, but that's OK. Eventually it will do its thing and be totally awesome. Add enough water to cover the lot and come about two-thirds of the way up the pan. Crank up the fire and bring it to the boil, then reduce to the lowest heat and smallest burner you've got and just let it sit there, barely bubbling away, for about four to five hours.

Yes, that's right. That's why it's best to do this sucker on a weekend or on your day off. However, Giuliano and I understand the constraints and problems of the modern lifestyle, and so I will share with you the fact that I have tried to make this with about 1.5 hours notice and it has worked fine. You just have to keep it at a fairly insistent simmer, and if it's not reducing fast enough, persuade it to with more heat. It will get there if you keep your eye on it.

But it won't be even half as good as the slow version. Patience, grasshopper: put sauce on low heat and walk away. Put on a video, do some folding, go on the net for a while, pour yourself some wine and enjoy the wafting aroma of gorgeous rich beefy juices through the house. Anyone who comes through the door will instantly start to drool. Even vegetarians: you could probably even use this sauce to tempt / annoy a vegetarian neighbour or two.

Anyway, eventually you'll have your sauce reduced down to about half or a third of what it was. It should be not too liquidy. If it is, let it reduce some more and order a pizza for dinner, because it would be a crime to not let this sauce reach its full potential.

When it's done, sprinkle in your thyme and chopped parsley. Rosemary is pretty good too.

Meanwhile, the pasta. As someone who has kneaded and hand-sliced fresh pasta for this recipe, I say: don't bother. It's too overpowering, and your heavenly pasta will be under-appreciated. Save the perfect pasta for a simple lemon and herb dressing, and use the packet stuff for this. The only thing I'll say is: no shapes. You must use a thicker variety of the long thin pastas. Not spaghetti. Linguine is okaaay. Tagliatelle is best. And get a good one, not a 67-cent packet from the corner shop. If we're going to spend 5 hours making the world's most fab sauce then let's not embarrass it with shoddy, un-quality pasta.

According to the real deal, you cook your pasta and then combine about half your sauce with the pasta in its cooking pot. You have them already mixed together in the serving dish, not a pile of pasta with a pool of sauce on top. So, get that organised, then get a little dish of the grated cheese to go on the side. Serve the rest of the sauce in a bowl on the side too. That's it. The greatest bolognese sauce that ever lived, and here it is, immortalised on the interweb for all eternity. Share the happiness!