Ragù Bolognese. In a pressure cooker. Brilliant. Who knew?
That said, I have to admit that by not having it simmer for three hours, the house has not been filled with yummy Ragù-y aromae, and is clearly the poorer for it.
YMMV...
Anyhow, without further ado, Pressure Cooker Ragù Bolognese - -
Ingredients
1 cup diced Guanciale
5 carrots
3 celery stems
1 small onion
1 lb. each Ground Beef, Pork, and Lamb
1 cup red wine
4 tbsp tomato paste dissolved in a cup of water
4 cups whole milk
3 tbsp Nuoc Mam (Fish Sauce). Really. Trust me.
(It goes without saying, but get the best damn ingredients that you can...)
Put the pressure cooker on medium-low heat, and toss the guanciale in. While it slowly melts into a puddle of pork-fat goodness, chuck the carrots, celery and onion into a food processor and whir away till its all mush. Toss the aforesaid mush into the pressure cooker with the (hopefully largely melted. If not wait!) guanciale, and stir patiently for the next 20 minutes or so till the mush - technically called soffrito - has lost all its liquid, and changed color to a medium brown. What you're seeing is all those wonderful wonderful maillard reactions that add oodles of flavor. But, be really (!!!) careful, since it - literally - takes no time to go from this stage to the "black and definitely burnt" stage 😱
Now, chuck in the ground meat, all of it if you please, and poke / mush/ stir around till its
(a) broken up, and
(b) no longer red.
If you want to speed this stage up, you can - just turn the heat up to medium or a bit more. Just be aware though that the higher the heat, the faster/harder you are going to have to poke / mush / stir to prevent the whole mess from burning…
Once it is all browned, add the wine, and keep stirring till the wine has reduced to, well, nothing. You'll know when the amount of steam coming off the meat decreases quite drastically (a nifty trick!). Add in the dissolved tomato paste, and stir the goop for a few minutes.
Now for the secret ingredient - add the Fish Sauce. Don't worry, the odor vanishes within a few minutes, but what it does leave behind is a boatload of lip-smacking umami, which you'll really really appreciate when its all done.
If you've done everything properly, or even reasonably properly, or, heck, basically not burnt stuff to a crisp, you should have taken roughly 40 minutes to get to this stage.
Finally, add the milk, stir it all in till its nicely mixed up, put the lid on the pressure cooker, and cook at the highest pressure for 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat, let the pressure come down take the lid off, and marvel at the silkiest, smoothest, and bestest Ragù Bolognese that you've ever made and/or eaten in your life.
For even more enjoyment, consume with home made taglaiatelle or spaghetti. Or, take a tip from my friends (Yes Greg and Farhad. I mean you), and just scoop the stuff into a bowl and eat directly sans pasta…
Update: I know, I know, this is Pressure Cooker Ragù Bolognese, but if you happen to not have/want a pressure cooker (Tammy...), then
- Use a heavy-bottomed stock-pot instead of the pressure cooker (you don't want the ragu to burn)
- Follow the recipe up the point where you put the lid on the pressure cooker
- Put a lid on the pot, and turn the heat down low. Real low. So low that the ragu is - barely - bubbling. This is not a boil. It should be more like - bubble <pause> <pause> bubble <pause> <pause> bubble etc.
- Let the whole thing simmer for a two, maybe three hours. If/when it starts getting dry, add more milk (unlike the pressure cooker, there will be evaporation here!) Note that you want to bring the milk to a boil before you add it, otherwise it'll cool the ragù!
- There is really no "done" stage. At some point around 2 - 3 hours down the road, the aroma will drive you crazy, and you will eat it :-)
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