Marco Pierre White's Bolognese

Grated vegetables that dissolve into the sauce. Beef cooked until the water's gone and the fat renders. Wine reduced until you can't smell the acidity. Made today, eaten in three days.

Ingredients

Method

1. Grate the vegetables

Grating means they’ll dissolve completely as the sauce cooks. By the end, there’s no chunks of vegetable. Just flavor absorbed into the sauce.

2. Cook the beef

Heat pan until smoking. Add beef. Don’t move the pan.

Three things happen in order: water releases and evaporates, fat renders, meat caramelizes. You’ll hear the difference. Wet sizzling becomes dry sizzling. Break up lumps as you go, but keep the pan still. Adjust the flame instead of shaking the pan.

When you smell intense beef and the sizzling is dry, it’s done. Drain the fat into a bowl.

3. Cook the vegetables

While beef cooks, heat olive oil in second pan over low heat. Add vegetables, thyme, bay leaf. Cook gently.

Same principle: you’re removing water to intensify flavor. Spread them across the base. Don’t keep stirring. Listen for when wet sizzling turns dry. The natural sugars in the carrot will come out.

4. Combine and drain

Tip vegetables into the drained beef. Work through. More fat will release. Drain again.

You’re removing fat in stages. There’s still plenty left for flavor, but you’re taking out the excess.

5. Reduce the wine

Pour wine into the pan. Let it reduce by 90%.

You should smell wine but not acidity or alcohol. If you can still smell sharpness, keep reducing. Most people move on too quickly here. Don’t dilute.

Skip this step if not using wine.

6. Add passata

Add passata. Work through. Bring to a simmer.

Use plain passata with nothing added. You’re building the flavor yourself.

7. Braise

Cover surface with parchment paper (a cartouche), then the lid. This traps moisture without letting it drip back and dilute the sauce.

Oven at 140°C for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.

Skim any fat that rises.

8. Rest

Cool completely. Refrigerate.

Don’t eat it the day you make it. Bolognese needs three or four days to mature. The flavors marry. It becomes something else entirely.

Summary

The whole method comes down to a few principles: grate vegetables so they disappear, evaporate water at every stage to concentrate flavor, don’t move the pan unnecessarily, reduce wine until the sharpness is gone, and give it days to mature before serving.

P.S.

This isn’t LinkedIn, I’m not going to tell you why this recipe or it’s creator is worth understanding. I will tell you that the product is delicious, and the recipe is delightfully simple, slow and considered - it demands the use of all your senses.