After Formula 1’s long awaited return to Australia last time out, we now look forward to this weekend where the teams will be gearing up for their next race on the calendar, the Emilia Romagna GP. Our return to this classic track will be the first of two races taking place in Italy this year, so for that reason, I decided to focus this week’s recipe on a dish that’s famously from this region of northern Italy. With this weekend’s action taking place in the small town of Imola, it’s a dish that’s synonymous with the nearby city of Bologna that we’ll be making this week…Spaghetti Bolognese. What makes this week’s recipe just so special though is that it isn’t just my own take on the famous dish, this week’s post uses the OFFICIAL recipe for Bolognese sauce, as registered by the Bologna Chamber of Commerce.
What happened at the Australian GP?
When the teams returned to Australia for the first time in three years, there was a lot of uncertainty around how the race would unfold. With some slight changes to the track layout and the new regulations to the cars this year, it wasn’t so predictable what kind of race we’d see. Thankfully, the changes seemed to pay off though as we saw an impressive 34 overtakes during the course of the race, nearly twice as many as we saw from the previous three races there combined.
The increase in action was brilliant for the midfield battle, which McLaren eventually came out on top of, but towards the front end of the race, the same couldn’t quite be said. Charles Leclerc had such a dominant performance in his Ferrari that he achieved his first ever Grand Chelem, after getting pole position on the Saturday, led every lap on the Sunday, won the race and gained the fastest lap too. Unfortunately, the Monegasque’s performance couldn’t be matched by his teammate Sainz, who retired from the race during the opening laps.
With Charles having to fight for the lead on his own, it was the two Red Bulls of Verstappen and Perez that were giving chase and challenging the Ferrari driver at the front. Out of the two, it looked like Max Verstappen was the driver with the best chance of taking the lead away from Leclerc, but to his frustration, as well as all the Red Bull fans watching, the Dutch driver suffered a fuel issue which forced him to retire his car towards the end of the race.
After Max’s retirement, it was George Russell that benefitted most from this, as the extra position he inherited saw him move from 4th to 3rd, gaining him a podium finish. Although Mercedes clearly have the third fastest car this year, their ability to mop up the points that Red Bull lose after suffering mechanical issues, has now seen the German team move above Red Bull in the Constructors standings as they now sit second overall, with George Russell also in the same position in the Drivers standings.
F1 returns to Italy
With this being the third race to be held at the famous Imola track since it was added back onto the F1 calendar in 2020, a few drivers, in particular George Russell, will be hoping that it’s third times a charm this weekend. After crashing his Williams while behind the safety car in 2020 and then colliding with Valtteri Bottas in 2021 which saw both drivers retire as a result, the Englishman will be hoping to have a more successful race this time out and bring home some decent points for his new team.
One driver who will be hoping he has a similar race to last year though will be Max Verstappen. It was in Imola was where his battle for the 2021 championship with Lewis Hamilton really started to heat up. The two went wheel to wheel right from the start and by the time the chequered flag fell, it was Verstappen who had won out, putting down a real marker to Hamilton and Mercedes that himself and Red Bull would be able to finally compete with them for both titles that year.
The drama from Imola isn’t only reserved to those last two races though. F1 has held nearly 30 races at this north Italian track in the past, starting back in 1980 and running right through until 2006 where plenty of action was had over the years. When the track no longer met the FIA’s standards and other tracks were taking priority over it, the track lost its spot on the calendar. Thankfully for us all though, the track had undergone major renovation in it’s time away from F1, allowing it to be included in the mishmashed 2020 season.
What can we expect to see at Imola this weekend?
With the track now assured of its place on the calendar after securing a deal with F1 until 2025, the teams will be looking at how they can capitalise on the race there this weekend.
One team that will be feeling the pressure to perform perhaps more than others will be Ferrari. Charles Leclerc and the team currently sit top of the WDC and the WCC respectively, but they’ll be hoping that they can continue they’re championship leading form this weekend in front of their home fans. Yes, the Tifosi will be out in their masses for this race, especially as it’s been quite a few years now since Ferrari mounted a serious title challenge like they are doing this year.
The team in scarlet are arguably the favourites once again going into this race weekend, however Red Bull will be hoping that they can ruin the home teams party and secure their second win of the season. After our first three races this year, it’s clear that Red Bull do have a car that’s capable of competing with Ferrari for wins, but the real question is if their car will be reliable enough to see the chequered flag or not. The team have suffered three DNF’s already this year and no matter how fast your car is, it’s nearly impossible to challenge for titles when you’re only able to finish 50% of your races.
Things may be shaken up a bit this weekend though, with the inclusion of a sprint qualifying session on the Saturday and a good chance of us seeing rain at some point too. Although a sprint quali can sometimes make the grid a bit more predictable, it does also open the door for more issues and incidents to occur. If you then add in a decent chance of rain as well, then we might just see a bit of a mixed up grid come this Sunday.
So then, why did I decide to make Spaghetti Bolognese?
As I mentioned in my introduction, due to the fact that we’re going to be having two Italian Grand Prix’s this year, I decided it would be best to make dishes that are from the race’s regions instead, rather than just the country as a whole. After taking a bit of a closer look at Imola, as well as the northern region of Emilia Romagna as a whole, it became clear to me that there was only one dish that I could make, Spaghetti Bolognese.
Although Imola is just a small town itself, just 40km away from it is the historic city of Bologna, famous around the world for its “spaghetti alla Bolognese.” As I began to research a bit more about this dish though, I eventually came across the “official” recipe for Ragu alla Bolognese and was instantly intrigued. As it turns out, due to its huge popularity, the Academia Italiana della Cucina went on an extensive journey to discover and decide what was THE recipe for this famous dish, before then submitting it to the Bologna Chamber of Commerce in 1982, who then registered the submitted recipe. The recipe itself is just for the famous ragu sauce, which is then paired alongside some form of long dry pasta. In Emilia Romagna, this would usually be done with Tagliatelle, however as Spaghetti is more widely found around the world, I decided to use this pasta in our recipe today.
What makes this dish so special?
After having made Spaghetti Bolognese a number of times before, the thing that surprised me the most after finding this recipe, was that it doesn’t include any kinds of herbs in it. Over the years, I’ve always experimented with my pasta sauces, adding in basil, rosemary, oregano etc., but there’s none of that in this recipe. Instead, the way that this recipe adds such delicious flavour is by slow cooking the sauce over 2/3 hours and by ensuring you use fresh ingredients. When I first made it, I was questioning myself whether I should add in a couple of extra bits to the dish still but trust me, you really don’t need to. The slow cooking process ensures that the simple ingredients list all compliment each other perfectly and allow each item to add their own aspect to the dish.
Also, as you scan the ingredients list, you may be wondering why there’s no garlic present in the dish. In certain regions of Italy, there’s a belief that you should never cook garlic and onion together in the same pan, either because it’s unnecessary too or because one flavour detracts from the other. I’m unsure whether that was the reason for omitting garlic from this recipe, however you can trust me when I tell you that it really isn’t needed. This sauce is more than enough without it.
With all that being said, here’s this week’s recipe for the Emilia Romagna GP…Spaghetti Bolognese, enjoy.
Recipe For Spaghetti Bolognese
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours 20 minutes – 2 hours 35 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes - 2 hours 50 minutes
Ingredients
300g Minced/Ground Beef (Not too lean. Ideally between 10%-20%)
150g Finely Cubed/Ground Pancetta
50g Diced Carrot
50g Diced Celery
50g Diced White Onion
300g Tomato Passata
100ml Dry White Wine
100ml Whole Milk
300ml Meat Broth (I use beef broth when making this)
300g-350g Dried Spaghetti (Fresh pasta is also fine if you prefer)
Splash Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Parmigiano Cheese
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
Dice the celery, onion and carrot into small pieces and place to one side.
If you’re unable to buy pancetta that’s already cubed, then dice it into small pieces at this point.
Once done, place the pancetta into a large saucepan/dutch oven with just a splash of olive oil. Cook on a medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, being careful to ensure the pancetta doesn’t stick too much to the bottom of the pan.
After 5 minutes, add in the diced celery, onion and carrot, as well as another splash of olive oil and cook for a further 5 minutes.
After this, add in the minced beef and cook until it turns brown, roughly another 5 minutes.
Once browned, turn the heat up to high and add in the white wine. Stir it in and then let it evaporate. It should roughly take about 5 minutes.
Next, add in the tomato passata and reduce the heat down to low. Cover your saucepan/dutch oven and let it simmer for 2-3 hours. While the sauce simmers, it will end up reducing so to avoid the sauce burning as a result, top up with your meat broth and/or water over the 2 hours. You may not need all the meat broth for this but it’s better to have a bit extra just in case. Feel free to add some salt and pepper at this stage too but not too much, the milk will alter the taste later so save some seasoning for later.
About 10 minutes before your sauce will be ready, bring to boil another saucepan of water for your pasta. Add in a splash of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt before then adding in your pasta.
Once the two hours have passed, add in your milk. This will soften the acidity from the tomatoes and smooth everything out. Stir together and try the sauce, before then seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
Drain off your pasta once cooked and serve, adding as much sauce as you prefer.
Finish off with a sprinkle of Parmigiano cheese and enjoy.
Tips
Adding oil into your pasta will stop it sticking together or to the pan itself.
If you’re conscious about adding in too much meat broth, taste it as you go and instead, add in water if you feel as though the sauce has had enough meat broth. Again, be aware that the milk will change the final taste of the sauce though.
If you prefer, the official recipe says that you can use heavy cream as well as/instead of milk but in my opinion, the milk is fine on its own and adding heavy cream turns the dish into a creamier sauce than what I would consider to be a Bolognese sauce.
If you’re struggling to find any pancetta, the original recipe states to use “bacon”. In Italian, this normally means pancetta but if you’re stuck, I’m sure adding bacon should still be fine. I’ve made this before with bacon lardons and still really enjoyed the outcome.
Well, that’s our recipe for this week’s Emilia Romagna GP all done. If you tried making this yourself, please get in touch and let me know how you got on with it. You can get in touch via Instagram or Twitter, the links are just below this post.
Our next post will be out the Monday before the Miami GP and will cover a dish that may surprise some of you, as it’s not one that first springs to mind when you think of the USA. Be sure to check it out in a couple weeks’ time.
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