FOODlog #74: Maccheroni Bolognese

Cooked for my family some Maccheroni Bolognese last week for lunch before going for basketball in the evening. My sons don't really like to eat pasta so I don't usually cook pasta for them. It's been quite awhile since I last cooked pasta so I guess it's a good change to have some pasta for our meal.

I started the base of my bolognese sauce by frying off in a pan some minced pork on high heat. I didn't add any oil to the pan as my mince pork was quite fatty and sauteed the mince to render the fat and let it cook in it's own oil. I then seasoned it with salt and pepper and cooked it until golden brown. After browning the meat, I removed it from the pan while retaining the oil that was rendered from the mince.

I then started sauteing some onions, carrots, and celery that I roughly diced. I cooked them for about 5 minutes and seasoned them with salt and pepper after which I transferred everything to my pressure cooker along with 670ml of crushed tomatoes.

I normally cook bolognese in a pot or pan for hours so I wanted to try to use the pressure cooker and see if there was and difference in taste. I cooked it in the pressure cooker for about 30-40 minutes and then I removed it and transferred the bolognese to a pan and added some milk and pasta water in it.

For the maccheroni, I cooked it in a large pot with salted water until it was al dente. I then added the pasta to the sauce and let it cook for another 2-3 minutes and add the final seasonings to taste.

After plating the pasta, I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top and served it. It tasted like the usual bolognese I cook in a pan. I'll want to try to cook bolognese in a pot for 6-8 hours next time and see how it taste with the long hours of cooking low and slow. That'll be my next experiment in achieving the ultimate bolognese.