Le Zucchine

Method:

A generous, familiar Bolognese

This is the kind of Bolognese ragù most of us mean when we want a comforting bowl of pasta: minced beef, a patient soffritto of onion, carrot and celery, red wine, tomato and enough time for everything to become deep and mellow. There is no garlic in this recipe. The soffritto does the aromatic work, and the small ridges and hollow centres of Barilla Gnocchetti Sardi catch the meat sauce beautifully.

The quantities make four generous servings. The ragù is even better if it can simmer for ninety minutes, but an hour will still give you a lovely family supper. The small addition of milk is not there to make the sauce creamy; it softens the acidity of the tomato and rounds out the flavour of the beef.

Make the soffritto

Peel the onion and carrot, trim the celery and chop all three very finely. Try to keep the pieces small and fairly even, because they should melt into the ragù rather than remain as large vegetables. Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy pan over medium-low heat, add the onion, carrot and celery with a small pinch of salt, and cook gently for 10 to 12 minutes. Stir often and let the vegetables become soft and sweet without taking much colour. Do not add garlic.

Brown the beef

Raise the heat to medium-high and add the minced beef. Break it into small pieces with a wooden spoon, then leave it alone for short stretches so it can brown instead of simply steaming. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring and breaking up any larger lumps, until no pink remains and a little golden colour has developed on the meat and the bottom of the pan. Season with black pepper and a modest pinch of salt.

Add the tomato paste and cook it with the beef for about 2 minutes, stirring, until it darkens slightly and smells rich. Pour in the red wine, scrape up all the browned flavour from the bottom of the pan and let the wine bubble until it has almost completely evaporated.

Simmer the ragù slowly

Add the chopped tomatoes, beef stock or water and bay leaf. Stir well, bring the sauce to a gentle bubble, then lower the heat. Leave the pan partly covered and simmer very gently for at least 1 hour, or preferably 90 minutes. Stir from time to time, especially near the end, and add a splash of water if the ragù becomes dry before the meat is tender. It should finish thick and spoonable, but still loose enough to coat the pasta.

Stir in the milk for the final 15 to 20 minutes of cooking. Let it disappear into the sauce, then remove the bay leaf and taste. Adjust the salt and pepper only now, when the ragù has reduced and you can judge it properly.

Cook and dress the gnocchetti

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil. Add the Barilla Gnocchetti Sardi and cook according to the packet directions until al dente. Before draining, reserve a mugful of the starchy cooking water.

Put about two-thirds of the ragù in a wide pan or warm serving bowl. Drain the gnocchetti, add them to the sauce and toss thoroughly for a minute or two, adding a small splash of pasta water when needed. The sauce should settle into the grooves and hollow centres rather than sit heavily at the bottom. Fold in more ragù until every spoonful has a good balance of pasta and meat; any sauce left over can be frozen for another supper.

Serve

Serve immediately in warm bowls with finely grated Parmesan at the table. This is a complete, hearty dish, so it needs little more than a green salad and some bread if you want to catch the last of the sauce. Like most slow-cooked ragù, it tastes even deeper the next day and reheats gently with a splash of water.