Bolognese: can I add the meat after tomatoes?

Question

I see most recipes online mention first frying the meat a bit and then adding it. I think that would make the meat drier than meadt mixed into fresh tomatoes. Will it work ok if I put the meat into a fresh tomatoe sauce about 20-30minutes in? and when should I add the wine?

thanks!!

Answer 1

It won't be as nice if you place meat into the fresh tomato sauce.

The reason why is because you are then essentially boiling the mince, so you won't have any caramelisation happening. That caramelisation adds a good amount of flavour to the sauce, so you'll be losing that.

Sure, the mince may dry during the frying process, but remember that it will get 'rehydrated' anyway when you throw it into the sauce afterwards.

Also, by frying the mince, you render out all the fat that can be used to fry the Mirepoix to add extra flavour.

I like to add the wine to help deglaze the pot/pan once I've fried everything, then I reduce to half, then I add the tomatoes last.

Answer 2

Mince needs to be browned, the longer the better in my opinion, to get all the nice sticky brown flavors into your dish (not just mince all meat, within reason).

Then I drain the fat and add onions till they go nice and brown. Then add your wine till it's reduced down to nearly nothing and then your tomatoes.

The main thing, to maintain the integrity of the mince texture, is don't boil it. Let the dish simmer slowly to break down any connective tissue in there but not so the protein starts to fall apart which would cause your mince to have a more Sandy/grainy texture.