Broken Noodle Bolognese

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Prep first: finely chop the celery, onion and fennel, stalks and all. Yes, the fennel stalks too. We waste nothing in this house.
2. Finely chop the leaves of the rosemary sprigs.
3. In a large bowl, mix the beef and sausage, then divide it into 4 large, shaggy balls. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Shaggy is the goal. These get crumbled later, so nobody's judging their looks.
4. Make the ragù: in a large Dutch oven, heat a few big glugs of olive oil over medium-high until it starts to smoke. Sear the meat, flipping every few minutes, until a thick crust forms all over, 10 to 12 minutes total. Move it to a plate. Leave it alone between flips. The crust is the flavor, and the crust only forms if you stop poking.
5. Add the celery, onion, fennel and rosemary and cook until very soft and starting to stick to the bottom of the pot, 10 to 13 minutes. Sticking is good. Sticking is flavor.
6. Stir in the miso and tomato paste and cook until they sizzle and fry in the fat and stick to the bottom, 3 to 4 minutes.
7. Pour in ¾ cup each of the red and white wine, scraping up everything stuck to the bottom, then lower the heat to medium. That stuck stuff was the whole point of the last two steps. Get every bit.
8. Crumble the meat into smaller pieces as you add it back to the pot. Cook, mashing and stirring now and then, until most of the liquid is gone and the pot is mostly dry, 9 to 11 minutes.
9. Stir in 2½ cups water, bring to a simmer, cover and turn the heat to very low. Simmer for 1½ hours, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes. Set a timer. Then set another one, because you will absolutely ignore the first.
10. Stir in a couple of big spoonfuls of mascarpone. Leave the lid off and keep it at a very low simmer until the sauce is thick and deeply flavorful and most of the water is gone, 1 hour or longer. Add a splash or two of water if it's getting dry; you want thick and rich, not dry. Take it off the heat and cover to keep warm.
11. To finish, bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Salt it like it owes you money.
12. Break the lasagna noodles into irregular 2-inch pieces and boil until al dente, about 10 minutes. Just before draining, scoop out a big measuring cup of pasta water. Irregular is the look. If anyone asks, you meant to do that.
13. If the ragù has cooled, warm it gently. Stir the noodles into the ragù over medium heat, adding another fat spoonful of mascarpone and big handfuls of Parm as you stir. Keep going until the noodles are super saucy, loosening with pasta water as needed and tasting as you add cheese until you're happy.
14. Divide among bowls, top each with a dollop of mascarpone and a drizzle of olive oil, and pass more Parm at the table.