home

CLASSIC pasta

rigatoni with white bolognese

Home

Pasta

Risotto

Wine

Ingredients

Restaurants

Library

Editor's page

E-mail to the editor

This is a simpler variation of the classic Bolognese ragu -- properly called white Bolognese, because of the absence of tomatoes. We use this sauce with bulkier pastas, such as rigatoni, here, but penne would also work well.

for the sauce:

two tablespoons olive oil
two tablespoons butter
three cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
one medium onion, diced
two medium carrots, finely diced
two stalks celery, finely chopped
one pound of sweet Italian sausage
one pound ground beef
one cup white wine
two cups beef stock
one and one-half ounces dried porcini
one-half cup heavy cream
salt and pepper
two tablespoons chopped parsley
one half cup freshly grated parmesan

for the pasta:

one pound of rigatoni

Remove the sausage from the casing. Roughly chop the sausage and ground beef.

Put the porcini mushrooms in two cups of hot water. Let soak for twenty minutes. Then remove the porcini, saving the liquid, and roughly chop the porcini.

Put the olive oil in a saute pan over medium high heat. Add the sausage and beef and brown it. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon to break up the meats into small pieces. When browned remove and set aside.

Add the butter to the saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic. Thirty seconds later add the onions, carrots and celery. Cook until tender about five minutes. Add the chopped porcini and the browned meats, plus a half teaspoon of salt and some freshly ground pepper. Heat and stir for a minute.

Add the two cups of stock and the cup of reserved porcini liquid and simmer, uncovered, until the liquid is nearly gone. This should take about an hour or so. The sauce should be quite loose, but not soupy.

Fold in the half cup of cream and heat through, stirring while it heats.

Meanwhile bring 4-5 quarts of water to a boil. Add two tablespoons of salt. Drop in the pasta and stir. Continue cooking until al dente.

Add the rigatoni to the heated sauce, add the parmesan and stir well. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with the chopped parsley as garnish and with some additional parmesan.