Sofritto

When I was 12 years old both my parents were workers. My sister and I would arrive home from high school, and we would have three or four hours alone in the house before Mum and Dad arrived home. My parents weren't the kind of people to wait on their kids hand and foot. Instead, there were jobs to do, and woe be tide the child who did not do them. There were three key jobs - washing up the breakfast dishes in the afternoon, cooking the dinner and drying up the dishes after dinner.

My sister and I would take turns week on week for each job (although I must say I got out of drying up the dinner dishes for as much of my teenage years as I possibly could). We worked it so that we cooked the dinner for a week one week, and swapped to do the breakfast dishes the following week. This provision of dinner for my family from the tender of 12 is where I really learned my chops as a cook. And there is one meal I cooked every week without fail - spaghetti bolonese.

In the 1980s we had this recipe down pat. Our version of this time honoured classic included cream and thinly sliced champignons (from a tin). It was the most requested birthday dinner in our household (followed by Black Forest Cherry Cake).

In 1989 I dined a fair bit at No Names in Darlinghurst, where I found their bolognese sauce was quite a lot less meaty than mine, and far more saucey. A drunken afternoon with friends at the home of third generation Australian Italian guy changed my bolognese recipe substantially. He built a sauce from the tomato up, adding the meat much later and finely grinding it all up. I have been cooking my bolognese sauce like this ever since, with red wine as one of the key ingredients.

Until last week.

I have been researching stories for a kids international cook book, and I went looking for the origins of bolognese. Never mind that it's never served with spaghetti - there were other revelations to be garnered from my research. Firstly, bolonese sauce originates from Bologna dating back to the fifth century! When you eat bolognese you are dining from the plates of the ancients. Secondly, carrot and celery are compulsory bolognese ingredients. And here is why...

Soffritto is the base of bolognese. Equal amounts of carrot, onion and celery are brunoised (chopped very finely) and cooked in a good amount of olive oil for a half an hour. It becomes soft, caramelised and develops a flavour that is quite meaty. This becomes the base of bolognese sauce, which need not have beef in it if the soffritto is right. But since the ancient Bolognese were meat lovers, go ahead and include the ground beef!

We have cooked our revised bolognese sauce recipe several times over the past week or so and it has been a minor revelation for us. We've replaced the wine component with white wiine, which has changed the flavour substantially. We are humbled by the age of this recipe and will honour the ancients by always basing it on soffritto.

Ingredients
1 medium carrot
1 medium onion
1 or 2 celery sticks
2 cloved of garlic, crushed
2 tblsp good quality olive oil

1. Finely dice the carrot, onion and celery to the exact same size. You want to "brunoise" them - which is the French name for this dicing technique.
2. Heat the olive oil in a pot and add the carrot, onion, celery and garlic. Sautee on high for one minute, then reduce the heat to medium-low.
3. Cook the soffrito for 15-30 minutes, stiring occassionally to ensure all ingredients are cooked evenly.
4. Use the soffrito as the base for your bolognese sauce.

Just for the record, here is my bolognese recipe:

Ingredients
1 quantity of sofritto as above
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
200ml chicken stock

400g tinned crushed tomatoes
100g tomato paste
1/2 cup dry white wine

1tblsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp brown sugar
300g chicken mince
2 dried bay leaves

1. Combine the sofritto with the parsley, basil, salt, pepper, crushed tomatoes, tomato past, chicken stock and wine. Stir over a medium heat until combined, then bring to the boil.
2. Add the red wine vinegar, brown sugar and mince and stir until it's well coated with the sauce. Simmer for two minutes.
3. Take the pot off the stove and use the stick blender to finely puree all the ingredients. This is the secret step for parents who want to hide the vegetables in this dish from their kids!
4. Place the pot back on the stove. Add the bay leaves and taste. Add more salt and pepper if necessary.
5. Place a lid over the pot and cook on low for 15 minutes (or while you prepare your pasta).
6. Serve with pasta of your choice and freshly grated parmesan. Serves four!