The Simple Vegetable Mistake You're Probably Making With Bolognese

The soffritto, a mix of minced onions, celery, and carrot, is one of the main flavor bases of just about any Italian sauce. With bolognese, the real flavor comes from the ingredients melding together, so it's natural to think the soffritto should be cooked with the raw meat before adding in everything else. But Anthony Marini, chef and owner of The Pass and The Italian Boy After Dark, told Food Republic that he takes issue with this.

"The truth is it is a common mistake," Marini said. "Meat and vegetables require different types of cooking. The meat should be well caramelized, so it needs high heat and plenty of agitation, while the vegetables must be browned slowly over low heat." While it may be tempting to keep all those meat juices in your sauce, they actually produce less flavor than letting them evaporate, so the meat can develop some roasted texture of its own. Similarly, vegetables need to sweat out their moisture so that their sugars can brown, adding even more roasted flavor to the sauce rather than a clean, vegetable taste.

"It's best to use two pans and then combine them all into one," Marini informed us. When cooked together, neither component of the sauce can reach its full potential. If you must use a single pot or pan, cook the meat first and set it aside before browning the vegetables in the leftover fat. This is just one way to help your vegetables be all they can be and make an excellent sauce.

The ideal soffritto starts with the right ratio. Whatever volume you cook it in, it should be half onion, one-quarter celery, and one-quarter carrot. The onion provides most of the flavor, the carrot a bit of sugar, and the celery adds some aromatic vegetable taste. Feel free to include the minced leaves from carrots and celery as well, adding even more veggie flavor.

Since bolognese is still a tomato sauce, boost the flavor with one extra step: roasting. This helps them develop complex, umami flavors that are a fantastic pairing with caramelized meat and browned vegetables. Roast your tomatoes to perfection every time by drizzling them with olive oil and giving them a sprinkle of salt. The fat-salt combo gives them even more flavor and is an easy way to season your sauce in stages.

Speaking of flavor, since your soffritto cooks at a medium to low temperature, feel free to use extra virgin olive oil. The debate of when to use refined versus extra virgin olive oil is only important when you have to factor in extra virgin varieties' low smoke point. However, this problem is caused by flavorful particulates floating in the oil, so when cooking at low temperatures, extra virgin is preferred.