Leftover Brisket Bolognese

So you prepared a large piece of brisket, ate a substantial quantity for dinner, and now you have enough for a few more evenings.

Instead than reheating and eating brisket for a couple of days, why not try something new?

Let’s repurpose the leftover brisket by making a Bolognese sauce to serve over pasta. I believe that utilizing smoked brisket adds a lot more depth of flavor to the Bolognese sauce, particularly with the smoky characteristics that encompass all of the ingredients in this sauce.

We’ll keep it pretty classic, since traditional Bolognese sauce doesn’t usually include smoked brisket. It is often made with ground pig, beef, and sometimes veal.

If you already have a smoked brisket, you can make the greatest Bolognese sauce in your slow cooker in 4 to 6 hours, or if you’re like me, you can stretch it to a 2 day slow cooked sauce that will blow your socks off. Continue reading to find out why I prefer to take my sauce to the next level.

Firstly we need some cooked brisket 

If you came upon this recipe and don’t have any leftover brisket, check out our article on how to smoke brisket.

This covers the fundamentals of meat preparation, seasoning, setting up your smoker, cooking periods, and temperatures.

We also have some longer tutorials on how to trim a brisket and how to correctly slice one up after cooking.

Now if you do have some cooked brisket, read on.

This dish calls for 2.2 pounds of brisket. I know it seems like a lot of beef, but this recipe will create enough for two dinners, and believe me, you’ll be glad you made extra.

How long to let the Bolognese cook for in the slow cooker? 

How much time do you have available? This indicates you’re preparing it at noon for supper tonight. Then 4 to 6 hours is plenty.

How do you feel about the flavor? As this sauce gently simmer, its taste deepens with a rich umami explosion that appears to increase with each hour you let it alone.

As a result, when I make brisket, my family gets delighted for two reasons. One is that they know they’re receiving brisket, and the other is that they’ll be having the tastiest Bolognese sauce they’ve ever eaten in a couple of days.

If you want to push the sauce and simmer it for longer, keep an eye on it and add approximately a third of a cup of water at a time if it seems a bit dry on top. Make sure to give it a good stir now and again. The sauce diminishes with each hour, and the taste profile continues to develop.

To make this recipe, you will require:

• A slow cooker or large lidded pot
• Kitchen scales
• Various spices
• Rub shaker
• Chopping board
• Sharp chefs knife

What kind of Pasta should I use with the Bolognese? 

To keep things traditional, choose a bigger flat form pasta, such as Tagliatelle. This is typically used with a Bolognese sauce because to its broad form, which mimics a ribbon, which enables it to retain the sauce much better than thinner fashioned pastas.

Pappardelle is my particular preference. It is also a flat ribbon pasta, but somewhat broader than Tagliatelle.

Why add the milk? 

Milk is an essential ingredient in classic Bolognese sauce.

When I originally heard about adding milk, I was skeptical, but now I can’t create a tomato-based sauce without it.

Tomatoes are a fairly acidic meal, and adding milk to any dish that contains tomatoes softens the harshness. As a consequence, the flavor is more subtle.

Before adding the milk to the sauce, make sure it is at room temperature. This will prevent the sauce from curdling, which may occur when cold milk is added to a hot tomato-based sauce.

Bolognese sauce step by step

1. Prep your ingredients

In line with the classic Bolognese method, this dish uses a few fresh ingredients to create a wonderfully flavorful sauce.

I propose that you prepare things ahead of time.

To begin, I’ll peel, top, and tail the carrots before dicing them into inch cubes. I’ll do the same with the onions and dice up the celery stalks.

Take the tomato puree (passata), red wine, and tomato paste measurements.

Because the milk will not be used until later, it may be measured towards the end of the cooking period to enable it to get to room temperature. If you don’t get it out of the fridge in time, give it a brief zap in the microwave to warm it up.

Prepare the dry ingredients: bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

Take the beef you saved for the Bolognese and cut it into inch-sized pieces. This will just make handling the cooked brisket simpler.

3. Making the Bolognese 

Because the brisket is fully cooked, we could simply throw it in the slow cooker or pot right away, but I want to utilize some of the brisket fat to soften the veggies and add flavor.

I’ll begin by warming the brisket in batches in a frypan. I’ll transfer the meat from the pan to the slow cooker after I see some fat drain out, leaving the fat behind. Repeat with the rest of the brisket. Once everything is in the slow cooker, we should have some wonderful brisket fat in the pan.

The chopped onions, carrots, and celery are added to the pan.This will take 10 to 15 minutes, or until the onion is tender and transparent. Give it a good shake every now and again.

When the veggies are finished, pour in the wine. Allow this to warm up for a minute or two before adding it to the slow cooker with the brisket. In the slow cooker, combine the tomato puree (Passata) and tomato paste, as well as the bay leaves. Stir it well.

Set the slow cooker on low and close the lid. If you’re cooking on a stovetop, just lower the temperature to the lowest setting possible.

3. Give the sauce time to develop flavor

We want this to simmer for at least four hours, but I generally slow cook mine for a few days. The wait will be totally worth it.

Once the sauce has been cooked to our taste, we may remove the bay leaves and serve it out. We have six people in our household, and traditional pasta sauces only need 2 to 4 ounces of sauce each dish. As a result, I split my into 20-ounce portions to serve the family.

I return the dish I want for that night’s meal to the slow cooker since we still need to finish it.

When the other sections have been properly cooled, I place a family size amount in a zip lock bag, press out all of the air, seal the bag, and lay it flat in the freezer, making it easier and faster to defrost later.

3 cup room temperature milk (enough for 4 servings). Mix it into the sauce. The milk will help cut through the tomatoes’ sharp acidity and provide a more delicate flavor.To complete the sauce, return it to the slow cooker and add 1

Season with salt and pepper and adjust to taste.

We are now ready to serve.

Cooking pasta

Pour a gallon of water into a big saucepan for every 3.5 oz of pasta. Bring the water to a boil with a couple of tablespoons of salt, then add the pasta. Stir it around until the spaghetti is well immersed. Boil according to the time specified on the package.

When finished, drain and serve immediately with your sauce.

To serve 

• With flat broad pasta and garlic bread.
• It is fantastic with mashed potatoes.
• I also make great pies with it.

I like topping my spaghetti recipes with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I like it because I like cheese, but I also like it because as the cheese begins to melt and blend in with the deep red rich sauce, it adds another flavor dimension.

Reheating frozen portions of Bolognese sauce 

Remove the frozen spaghetti sauce from the freezer the night before you want to use it. Place on a tray or dish in the refrigerator.

If you stored it in a zip lock bag nice and flat in your freezer, it should have defrosted completely by the following evening.

Add items to a frypan over a low heat and bring to temperature, which normally takes 10 to 15 minutes. Make sure to give it a good stir now and again.

3 cup for 4 servings) and whisk well.After the sauce has warmed up, add the required quantity of room temperature milk (1 cup).