The Perfect Bolognese Sauce | Chef Jean-Pierre

Welcome to another video. Today we're doing orecchiette bolognese. It's a little pasta that's got the shape of an ear. Orecchiette bolognese. You can make with any pasta you want. The secret is the bolognese sauce. We're gonna make this amazing sauce, I promise you. Remember click on subscribe and click on the bell so you can hear when we produce another video and if you like the video give us a thumbs up. So this is a very very simple recipe. Today I'm using a spicy Italian sausage. You can use beef, you can use pork, you can use chicken, you can use tofu for that matter. I make a beautiful bolognese with tofu. But today we're using a spicy Italian sausage. It's really the same principle for all of it. It doesn't matter what it is you do. The secret is to caramelize the meat that you are using. Whatever it may be. Chicken, beef, it doesn't matter. First thing we're gonna do is we're gonna sauté some onion. While the onion is sautéing over there. Right there I'm gonna sauté the sausage. I'm gonna show you because here we go. Put a lot of onion in there, don't worry. The onion is wonderful. Okay and we're gonna caramelize them. We're gonna let them do their thing. And then we're gonna do the sausage. And the sausage you get it normally when you get a sausage. It comes in with a casing like that. You want to remove the casing. The easiest way to remove the casing is simple. You cut it on one side. Then you flip the sausage on the other side and you put it right out. You see look it comes right out. You see right there it comes right out. Let me tell you the secret friends. It really really is important. Is to caramelize that meat to create the Manar reaction. Really really important. And I see a lot of people making bolognaise sauce and they don't take the time to caramelize it. It's kind of like imagine if you took a steak and you boil it in boiling water to cook it. Yeah it'll cook but you're gonna miss the opportunity to grill it. To get that caramelization or to sauté it in a pan and to get all those beautiful reactions. So it's really important. So we take that sausage and you're it's gonna take a little while but this is a must. That's why I wanted to do it in front of you because it's really really important to take the time to do this and that's why I wanted to show you from the beginning of making the sauce and even if it takes a little while it's important that I explain it to you because if you don't do this you're missing a great opportunity. Just I can't describe it better to you than if you took a steak and then you boil it to cook it okay instead of grilling it and look what I'm gonna do. You see right there? Now this is a very time-consuming process okay but you must do it. This is really the secret of making a fabulous bolognaise okay. It really is. It's like uh it really is amazing. Wait till you see it. Wait till you test it. Wait until you test it. It's really amazing. You got to take the time to do this. It doesn't matter if it's a beef or a pork or a chicken you gotta saute it. You see right there and you'll see it how far I'm gonna take it. Now depends the sausage you're buying it's gonna be very lean and depends the sausage you're gonna buy it's gonna be very fatty. So if you want to make it with sausage you're gonna have to watch it to make sure you buy sausage it's not too fatty. If you're gonna use a um a chicken same deal you know or same beef for the beef I buy 85 15 on the ground beef when I make a bolognaise. So it's not very fatty yeah and you see I'm taking my time to do this and I'm gonna saute the onion at the same time and I really want to do it to show you because nobody takes the time to do this to show you how to do this and so it makes it for a longer video but it's worth it to show you how to do it. We got some thyme then we're gonna put in later I don't want to forget it. We're gonna cut some mushrooms when I get mushrooms if they're big like this what I do is I cut them in half and then I cut them like this okay cut them in half and then cut them like this. See look half right there you see cut them like that just like that don't cut your fingers now here we go I say that and you watch I'm gonna cut my fingers. You know I've been a professional chef my whole life and I've been very lucky to cut myself very very very few time. Knife is something I really respect I have to be very very careful let me tell you you don't want to cut yourself look look at this look at this you see how long it's taking friends we're not even close in the meantime the onion is is getting it's thing we're not even close you see we're not even close to uh to where we want to be let me put that spoon right over there so remember when you use a knife be careful what I do is the knife is uh is behind my knuckle and if I do it slow motion you see my knife is always on the knuckle my knife is always on the knuckle as long as I feel the cold of the knife I'm not gonna cut myself the second I don't feel the cold then I'm in danger zone I could be over here I could be somewhere I have to be careful you see look it's not complicated I promise you right so look at this sausage over there going mama mia it's you see let me get that spoon again and you see we may have too much fat oh they oh this is what I wanted I wanted to show you let me see let's see if we can get to it this sausage has a lot of fat look at this this is you know too fatty so I'm gonna strain the fat out of there I don't want all that fat in my uh bologna so I'll show you I have a uh a little thing down there look let me show you let me show you let me show you let me get myself a tongue hold on one second I want to show you huh this is what I'm looking for right there friends you see right there this is exactly what I'm looking for right there that caramelization right there it's very very important that we get this it's very very important that we get this friends you see nice caramelization right there you see we're getting there but we want to break it up, break it up, break it up, see? And you do this, it doesn't matter if you're doing beef or pork or chicken, you stay, oh right there, right there, see? There you go, see? It's gonna take a little while longer. We're almost there, and the onion are cooking in the meantime, right? The onion are caramelizing it. You see right there, we want it just a little more brown, because that's where all the flavor is gonna be. If I miss an opportunity to do it now, it's never gonna happen. Now we're gonna put the mushrooms. Oh, let me get my scraper. I always forget something in my kitchen, eh? There we go. We're gonna put the mushroom in here. Let me cut, let me hurry up. Oh, that's a big one. That's a big mushroom right there, boy. Let me see how we're doing. Hey, you know, I brought a couple of baby portobello, maybe I put some of those too. Put whatever mushroom makes you happy, eh? See? Okay, look, look, look, look. There you go. Now the onion are nice and caramelized, you see? They're beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, the onion. So now we're gonna put the mushroom to get rid of the water. We'll put the mushroom to get rid of the water, friends. Okay? You don't have to put mushrooms if you don't want to put mushrooms in your, um, in your bolognese, but let me tell you, I really, really think it has the last, oh, look at them. What are they doing in there? It has a great deal of flavor, eh? The mushroom. Okay, look, look, look. Look, look, this is what I'm talking about, friends. You see right there? That caramelization? Let's get rid of the water in the mushroom, eh? Let's get rid of the water right there. And when you make a bolognese sauce, make extra. You can do so many things with a good bolognese. So many, many, many things, friends. Look at this, look at this. You see? Now, a lot of fat in here, right? You notice that? Okay, so look, this is the color I'm looking for right there. You can see it? This is what I want. If you could smell it, it smells beautiful. So look, here's what I'm gonna do, friends. I got it figured out here. I wanted to show you what happens if you got too much fat. This right here, this is a little too much fat. So I don't want all that fat. So you know what I do? Look. Look what I do. See, sometimes you gotta be careful. Last time I bought the sausage from this place, it was beautiful. It was not too fatty, but look at now. So you know what? I'm gonna do, friends, I'm gonna move over here, because now we're done. Okay, let's get rid of all the water in the mushroom. You see right there? This is what I'm talking about. Look, look how beautiful the color is. You see right there? If you could smell it, you'll understand what it is I'm talking about. But this is really, really, really important. You see, friends? Look at this. Right there. So you see, look. Look at all that fat. We don't want that fat right there. See? Not interested in that fat. So let me get rid of the, a little bit is okay. I don't mind a little bit of fat, okay? But too much fat is not very good. So look. Right there we're getting rid of all the water in the mushroom. Saute them a little bit longer. Let's make sure I got the good heat on there. There you go. Right? And then, we're gonna put fresh thyme. Just pick the leaf of the thyme, just like this. You see, look. Look how simple that is to do. Right? And then, we're gonna put some garlic. We gotta put garlic in our tomato sauce, for sure. So, you can have a, I have a chopped garlic things that I do, but since I never showed you how to do that, we just do this. See, you take your garlic right there, smack it, get maybe one more. What do you think? For that batch? I'll show you. Right there. Right there. You take it and just give it a quick little chop. That's another way to use your knife. Quick, quick, quick. Little chop, chop, chop. Alright, and we're gonna cook this. We're gonna put this in here. Right? And remember, the second we smell the garlic, the second we smell the garlic, what do we do? Let me clean up. I hate the dirty cutting board. The second we smell the garlic, we put our tomatoes. I'm using Lavalle tomatoes, the peeled Italian tomatoes, and it's absolutely fabulous. So, here we go. Chopped tomatoes. Beautiful chopped tomatoes. We're gonna put our sausage right there. We're gonna leave all our fat in here. We don't need it. You see? And we are getting close. We're getting close. We're gonna see what's happening here with our tomatoes. We're gonna put more tomatoes. Mix it up real good. The tomato puree is gonna bind the sauce. Maybe two spoons. Mix it all up. We're gonna let this cook. About 45 minutes to an hour. The tomatoes are gonna release more water. The tomato puree will be there to thicken it. Let me tell you, this with the pasta, I put it inside a Vidalia onion. I put it inside zucchini. I put it inside bell peppers. With this sauce, you can just serve it plain by itself with any kind of pasta. You can serve it with rice. You can also add some beans. It's really, really, really fabulous. We're gonna put salt and pepper in there. I'm using a Mediterranean sea salt. A little bit of pepper because my sausage is quite spicy. So I'm not putting too much of it. And right there, we're ready. So remember, if you have a sausage that's a little too fatty, like I had today, get rid of the fat. If you want to keep the fat in it, of course you can keep the fat in it. It's your sauce. Make it however you want to make it. But you don't need that extra fat. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna clean the pot. Remember when I cook, I like to clean my pot. I like to clean the pot. So then it doesn't burn on the side of the pot. It's starting to look good, but it's gonna take a while before it really comes through. So it comes to boil, the second it comes to boil, I want you to reduce and cook it very, very slowly. And every so often, I want you to mix it up like I'm doing right now. And then we'll adjust the seasoning about 45 minutes to an hour from now. So we're gonna reduce properly. And this is a, when you make a sauce like that, you want to make a huge quantity because it freezes beautiful. It actually gets better if you freeze it. It really, you refrigerate it, this is wonderful. Easy to make. And we're gonna come back and we're gonna serve it with orecchiette pasta and parmigiana reggiana. So we cooked it. This is about an hour now and 15 minutes. Today we cooked it a little bit longer. You can cook it, one hour is enough, one hour and a half. You don't need to cook a tomato sauce all day, you know. That's the way they used to do it all day, but I don't know why it is that way. You don't need to. So the sauce is beautiful. Remember, make extra because you can freeze it, right? I got orecchiette. Orecchiette, little ears. The reason why I like to do orecchiette, friends, is because they hold the sauce, they're perfect. So it's like a little pocket, if you will, or a little shell. Because you know, to me it looks more like a shell, it doesn't look like an ear, you know. But orecchiette means a small ear, right? It look more like an ear to me. Let me put this over there. I put a little bit of butter in there and like I said, the reason why I like to do the orecchiette is because the sauce is going to get right in there. You see, look. Now of course you can make it look pretty, put the pasta on the bottom and then put the sauce on top. But if you really want to enjoy it, friend, this is how you do it. Okay, you can serve any kind of pasta with this. You can certainly use a penne pasta, it'll be delicious. Also a spaghetti bolognese is wonderful, okay. And if you don't like mushroom, don't put the mushroom. I love the mushroom in there, you know. And this right there is so delicious, it's going to be a little spicy. So all we got to do is we're going to mix it up really well, right? We'll put a little bit of Parmigiano Reggiano on top of it. And a little bit of parsley and we're serving it, we're serving it in my favorite plate. Right there, this is beautiful, this is so simple, look at this. You see, look, look at that, that gorgeous. So nice, every little pasta has got a little sauce in there, right there. All we're going to do now is we're going to take just a little bit of the Parmesan cheese on there, just a little bit of Parmesan. Or you can put a lot of Parmesan, it's up to you. A little Reggiano now, make sure it's Reggiano, okay. Look at that, oh yeah baby. It's going to be delicious. And then I'm going to put a touch of little parsley in there. You can put basil chiffonade if you want, just for a little color. And this right there, my friends, is absolutely wonderful. You go ahead right there and make it because it is beautiful and it's going to be amazing.