‘I’m an Italian chef – my bolognese recipe is best you’ll ever have’
Bolognese, a kind of ragu, the Italian word for meat sauce, is a classic dish incorporating ground beef, onions, tomatoes, and a variety of herbs and spices. It’s a staple dinner dish in many homes around the world, and many people have their own way of cooking it.
But now an Italian chef, Gero DiMaria, who is part owner and chef at Kucina Restaurant in Singapore, has shared his secret to making the “best bolognese you’ve ever had in your life in under 25 minutes”. With over 30 years experience as an Italian chef, Gero said he had been practicing his recipe to make it absolutely “perfect” – and now felt able to share it.
While you can make it more complicated, by adding various ingredients such as carrot and cellery and fresh herbs, Gero wanted to make it as quick and simple as possible, so you could make a “good family-sized meal”. He also decided to do it using dried herbs, instead of fresh, to make it as “cheap and easy” to make.
According to Gero, the secret to his recipe is “good quality ingredients”, especially when it comes to the beef and tomato. “It’s so simple. But use good ingredients. Use good tomato. Use good beef, and the bolognese will be very, very good,” he explained.
Ingredients (4-5 people):
- Minced beef (300g)
- Olive oil
- One jar of passatta
- One tin of chopped tomatoes
- One onion (finely diced)
- Dried rosemary
- Dried thyme
- Tagliatelle (300g)
How to make bolognese
First, Gero said to “sweat down” the finely diced onions, or if you’re not very good at chopping them, you could grate it with a cheese grater, in olive oil for a “few minutes”. According the chef, you don’t want it on too high a heat because you don’t want any colour, just to “evaporate all the juices away so it’s not acidic”.
Then you add the minced beef, which you need to break up into pieces. According to Gero, this will release quite a bit of oil, but this is what will make the dish “so beautifully rich”. Cook until “brown” and there are “no red pieces”.
When the meat is ready, Gero added the tin of chopped tomatoes, and half of the jar of passatta, as it was a large one. He then added a sprinkling of dried rosemary and dried thyme, covered it with a lid, and let it simmer for around 20 minutes.
When the sauce is cooked, Gero adds in salt and pepper at the end. Then Gero cooks the tagliatelle pasta as instructed on the packet, which he says is the best to go with a meat sauce, because it has “depth” and the sauce will stick to it.
Gero then adds the tagliatelle into the meat sauce, before topping it with fresh parmesan cheese and mixing it in. Once plated, he added a bit more parmesan cheese to the top.
