Stir-Fried Rice Cake Bolognese

This recipe is from my debut cookbook First Generation, available wherever books are sold! I can trace my love of Bolognese all the way back to third grade, when my best friend, who lived across the street, introduced me to what would become one of my favorite meals: Spaghetti-O's with Meatballs. As a spaghetti enthusiast,
a trail of canned tomato and meat sauces has come along with me ever since, until I eventually reached a destination and found the recipes of Marcella Hazan. A first-generation Italian American immigrant, Hazan can be credited with shaping a generation of Americans’ definitions of Italian food. Cooking her Bolognese recipe for the first time, I discovered pure bliss, an expression of beef and tomato completely transformed after a “lazy simmer,” as she liked to say. Curiously, tasting Hazan’s Bolognese brought me not to Italy but to my own Taiwanese grandma and her fragrant simmered pork sauces poured over fresh noodles or rice. This recipe highlights the commonalities between different cultures. Rice cakes serve as the chewy base for a Bolognese sauce inspired by Hazan, while mixing in ingredients that are love letters to both Italian and Taiwanese tradition.
At a glance
Yield
4 servingsTime
4 hoursIngredients
Rice cakes
24 ounces rice cakes (oval shape)
Bolognese
Olive oil
2 yellow onions, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 scallions, green and white parts, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic (1 large clove)
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1⁄2 pound 80/20 ground beef
1⁄2 pound ground pork
1 cup whole milk
1 whole nutmeg
1 cup white wine (or rice wine!)
1⁄2 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons soy sauce
One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes with juice
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Toppings
Grated Parmesan cheese
Torn basil leaves
Preparation
Prep the rice cakes
Place the rice cakes in a large bowl and cover with water by 1 inch. Let soak at room temperature for 2 hours, or in the fridge, covered, up to overnight. Drain and set aside.
Make the bolognese
In a large pot over medium heat, warm a generous glug of olive oil. Add the onions, carrots, celery, scallions, garlic, and ginger, and cook until the onions are semitranslucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the ground beef and pork to the pot and cook, stirring and breaking up the chunks of meat, until the beef has browned, about 7 minutes.
Stir in the milk and let it simmer until it has evaporated. Using a nutmeg grater or other fine grater, grate 8 zips of nutmeg into the pot. Stir in the white wine and simmer until it has mostly evaporated. Add the cinnamon stick, bay leaves, soy sauce, kosher salt, and tomatoes and increase the heat to
bring everything to a light boil, then reduce the heat until it is very gently simmering, where just a burp of a bubble breaks the surface intermittently. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours, until thickened. Once cooked, taste the bolognese and add any additional salt as needed.
Assemble the dish
Transfer the Bolognese to a large saucepan, add the rice cakes, and stir-fry for a few minutes, until the rice cakes are soft and cooked through. Divide among four bowls, sprinkle with a light flurry of Parmesan and fresh basil, and serve.
Comments
More in Noodles
-
Cheesy Corn Pasta
Sweet corn is blended with onion and mixed with cheddar/parmesan to create a sweet and savory summer pasta.
-
Chili Oil Potato Rice Cakes (Nian Gao)
Homemade rice cakes made with potato chips are doused in a chili crisp soy and honey sauce and topped with fresh dill and scallions.
-
Chilled Tomato Soba Noodles
A refreshing bowl of chilled soba noodles swimming in a cool tomato, scallion, garlic and ginger broth; perfect for a hot day.
-
Cacio e Chili Crisp
A creamy, spice pasta dish where pecorino romano meets chili crisp in this very non-traditional homage to cacio e pepe that comes together in a pinch.
Rice cakes
24 ounces rice cakes (oval shape)
Bolognese
Olive oil
2 yellow onions, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 scallions, green and white parts, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic (1 large clove)
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1⁄2 pound 80/20 ground beef
1⁄2 pound ground pork
1 cup whole milk
1 whole nutmeg
1 cup white wine (or rice wine!)
1⁄2 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons soy sauce
One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes with juice
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Toppings
Grated Parmesan cheese
Torn basil leaves
Twitter Mastodon
Leave a comment