THE BEST BOLOGNESE
By Benjamin Marchesan
This is undoubtedly the best bolognese you’ll ever make or eat.
Alright, I know. That’s a big claim. And to those of you thinking ‘I have a great bolognese recipe’ or perhaps even ‘no, my Nonna’s bolognese recipe is the best’, I have only this to say: it is a fundamental truth that my Nonna’s recipe is the best and that your Nonna is an inferior imitation of my Nonna on her best day, and a charlatan and fraud on her worst. The upside of this is that it’s as true when you say it, as when I do. Scientists call this the ‘Nonna Paradox’. I won’t go into the quantum mechanics of it here, just accept it and move on. This recipe has been passed down from my nonna, to my father, and now to me. I tend to be a hard-line rationalist in most matters, but there’s something I can’t logically explain: everyone who makes this recipe will get a different result. My nonna’s bolognese tastes different from my dad's, which tastes different from my aunty's, which is different from mine, even when we follow the exact same recipe. Yours will be different too, even if you follow this recipe exactly, down to the brand. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
Enjoy, your bolognese is a reflection of your soul. And if it’s bad … take a moral inventory and try again. Bon appetito.
Ingredients (serves 10)
• 2 large oranges
• 6 eggs
• 230g almond meal
• 230g sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
Method
Wash the unpeeled oranges and simmer them in a large pot of water for 2 hours.
Once slightly cooled, cut them open and remove the seeds.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Puree the oranges, including the peel in a food processor.
Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the orange puree, almond meal, sugar and baking powder. Mix thoroughly. Pour into a buttered and floured cake tin.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted through the centre comes out clean. Cool before removing from tin.
Garnish with icing sugar and fruits like peaches, plums or apricots.