Bolognese Sauce

Opinionated f-chat chefs, I seek your guidance for bolognese sauce.
I have no Nonna to consult.
The internet provides the usual suspects, which I've cooked to good effect in the past.
I'm looking for any insight or tips you suggest I utilize for a big ol' pot I'm planning to cook this weekend.

The basics seem uncontested:
oil
onion/carrot/celery
meats (fav combos?)
chicken stock
milk
tomato paste
home made pasta (natch)

dealers choices appear to include:
butter
cream
wine
cheese
tomato
nutmeg

Does your Nonna have any tips?

Grazie

 

that's absolutely happening. got a pound of pancetta
any opinions on tomato, cream, spices beyond bay leaf, salt and pepper?

thanks for that
found the post as well as the bonus beef rangdang recipe right after. that'll be for another weekend.

 

I appreciate everyone’s tips.
Here’s what I cooked up, an amalgam of different recipes (they’re all variations on a theme):


Bolognese Sauce
(12 generous servings)

2 large onion, minced (2:1:1 onion:carrot:celery)
4 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped
6 ribs celery, finely chopped
2 lb ground beef
2 lb ground pork
1 lamb chop, coarsely chopped
Olive oil
1 lb pancetta
1 small tin tomato paste
2 cup dry white wine
1 large can tomato, hand-crushed
32 oz chicken stock
32 oz veggie stock
2 cup whole milk
3 Bay leaves
Parmesan cheese rinds (optional)
1/2 a Nutmeg, grated
salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup heavy cream, 4 T butter

1. Brown meats
   
2. Brown pancetta, add veggies and cook
   
3. Add tomato paste and browned meats
   
4. Add milk, simmer to evaporate (1h)
   
5. Nutmeg
   
6. Add wine, simmer to evaporate (1h)
   
7. Add stock and 1 can crushed tomato, slow simmer (4-6h)
   (We had a power outage here which made us put the pot in the fridge and resume the next day. Ended up being great because it could just lazy simmer for hours. I will stage it like that over two days next time on purpose.)
8. Add water as needed to keep from drying out
   
9. Add heavy cream/butter, salt to taste
   
10. Make pasta
11. Cook pasta 45 seconds
    
12. In skillet, add sauce, pasta and splash of pasta water, final cooking
    
13. Parmesan cheese and serve at sunset
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    I’ll make this again. it was transformative and worth the time.

 

For pasta, here’s my go-to recipe. This makes ~1.5 servings so easy to scale

Pasta

1 egg beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour (mix AP and tipo 00)
2 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon oil

Combine flour and salt
Mix in egg
Add liquid
Knead 5 min
Rest 15 min
Roll, cut, cook ~1 minute (45 seconds if final cooking in skillet with sauce)

for bolognese, I rolled it to #6 on the kitchen aide attachment and then hand-cut pappardelle. The thinner rolling really made it a light noodle.

 

I used a 28oz tin of whole peeled tomatoes (the bigger sized can on the shelf).
My impression is that tomato paste is standard but since bolognese isn’t a traditional red sauce, many recipes don’t use any tomatoes. Since I like them, I added.
The recipe I posted is definitely open to mods. Skip the lamb, add veal, change the stocks, substitute unsmoked/flavored bacon for pancetta, go nuts w garlic. It’s super flexible and worth the simmer. Definitely a recipe that is greater than the sum of its parts.
I did forget to mention: discard the fat after browning meats and skim the fat when simmering. I kept the pancetta fat and cooked the mirepoix in that.

mine looked like this when it was getting close. You can see from the fat ring how much it cooked down.
Stoked for leftovers now...
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Thanks
It was an appropriate amount. I got lucky, not too nutmeg-y but I could detect the presence. The flavors definitely evolve during the long simmer so the initial scent after grating mellows significantly.