Pappardelle with Beef and White Wine Ragù

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Meat sauce

1. 1
   Heat the olive oil in a wide pot over medium-low heat.

   ⚙ Pan-fryingStoveWide, shallow pot
2. 2
   Add the onion, celery and carrot and fry for 10–12 minutes, stirring, until the vegetables are soft and sweet, without browning.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
3. 3
   Raise the heat to medium-high and add the meat. Press it flat over the bottom and leave it for 2–3 minutes without stirring, until a brown crust forms.

   Stove

   💡Brown ground beef in the pot without pressing it: leave it as one 'cake' for a few minutes until a brown crust forms, then break it into chunks. Deep browning = deep flavor.
4. 4
   Break it up with a wooden spoon and fry for 8–10 more minutes, stirring, until no pink is left and the meat browns.

   StoveWooden spoon
5. 5
   Add the tomato paste to the meat and stir 2 minutes, until it darkens a little.

   💡Fry the tomato paste with the meat for a minute before the liquids: it caramelizes lightly, loses its sourness and deepens the sauce.
6. 6
   Pour in the wine, scrape up what stuck to the bottom, and cook until the wine has almost disappeared and the smell of alcohol is gone.

   Stove
7. 7
   Add the beef stock, bay leaves and nutmeg, season with salt and black pepper and bring to a boil.

   Stove
8. 8
   Serve hot 0.

   ⚙ SimmeringStoveLid

   💡The slower the sauce cooks, the thicker it gets and the better the flavors blend. 20–30 minutes make a quick meat sauce; an hour and a half to two hours over low heat make a rich Bolognese.

   💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.

For the Cooked pasta

1. 9
   Cook the pappardelle in plenty of boiling salted water (4¼ cups of water and a heaping teaspoon of salt for every 4 oz of pasta), following the package directions (taste about 2 minutes early), until al dente.

   ⚙ Cooking in salted waterStovePot

   💡The water should taste like a seasoned soup, not like sea water: a heaping teaspoon of salt per liter. Add the salt once the water is boiling.
2. 10
   Reserve ½ cup of the cooking water before draining.

   ⚙ Saving the cooking waterLadleorMeasuring cup

   💡The cooking water is starchy: a spoonful or two binds the sauce to the pasta or the gnocchi and makes it glossy.
3. 11
   Drain.

   Colander
4. 12
   Transfer the pasta straight into the sauce with some of the cooking water and cook together 1–2 minutes.

   Stove