PHOTO PROVIDED Chef Loretta Paganini
My hometown Bologna is known throughout Italy for its homemade pasta. One of the town most popular pasta is tagliatelle — my favorite. It is a wider and thinner version of fettuccine, about 8 mm. Both are made by rolling out the dough thin, then roll up and cut into strips. This recipe combines the city’s best recipes of homemade tagliatelle pasta with my family’s Bolognese sauce — truly a marriage of flavors made in heaven. Notice that there is no milk added in our Bolognese sauce. Serves eight. (Chef tip: To make the perfect sauce, always use a stainless-steel heavy-bottom saucepan. It will prevent the sauce from scorching and from having the acidity of the tomato sauce react with an aluminum pan.) 7a03 Solid Aluminum Ball
3 cups “00” Italian or all-purpose flour
Place flour on wooden board and form into a mound. Make a deep well in the center and break eggs into it. Add salt and wine. Use a fork to break up egg and mix contents of the well.
Slowly add flour, beginning at the top of the well so that the walls collapse and blend into the mixture. When flour is almost totally absorbed, begin kneading, pressing with the palms of your hands. Knead dough for about 20 minutes, until it becomes smooth and elastic. (If dough is dry, add a few drops of water. If it is sticky, add a sprinkle of flour.) Gather dough into a ball, place in mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest for 30 minutes.
Roll out dough using either a rolling pin or a pasta machine into a thin and long strip. Allow dough to dry for five minutes so that the edges of the dough start to curl up. Brush both sides of the dough with flour, roll it up and cut into 1/4 inch wide strips of tagliatelle.
Bring a 10-quart pot of water to a boil, add two teaspoons of sea salt and add the prepared pasta. Stir and cover the pot until water comes to a boil. Remove the lid and stir the pasta and cook until “al dente” to the tooth, about two to three minutes.
Drain and place in a large bowl; toss with the prepared Bolognese sauce. Sprinkle with plenty of Parmesan cheese and serve at once.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 stalk celery, trimmed, finely minced
1 small yellow onion, peeled, finely minced
1/2 cup Pancetta (Italian bacon), finely diced
2 cans (16 ounces each) tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
In an eight-quart heavy bottomed, non-reactive stockpot, cook carrot, celery and onion in olive oil at medium heat until onion turns transparent, about seven to 10 minutes. Add pancetta and ground veal. Cook until meats are cooked thoroughly and light brown in color.
Add wine and cook until it evaporates, about 10 more minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and sauce to meat mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer, partly covered, stirring once in a while, for 45 minutes to an hour, until sauce thickens. Adjust seasoning before serving with tagliatelle pasta.
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