Korean Bulgogi Bolognese - a marriage of Korean and Italian.

I am always on the lookout for great cooking websites.  The New York Times cooking section is one of the top ones.  What I especially love are the comments from cooks who have tried and "tweaked" the recipes.  I also tend to ignore those who have lots to say about a recipe they never tried.

The Korean Bulgogi Bolognese intrigued me.  It is a mashup of my two favourite cuisine.  This is a great dish! Oh, and I forgot to buy egg noodles so I just had to make them from scratch bringing the dish to another level- delicious!

Served with homemade spinach and red pepper egg noodles.

To serve four.

INGREDIENTS:

2  tbsp    grapeseed  oil
1  cup     finely chopped onion
1  cup     finely chopped carrot
1  cup     finely chopped celery
7             garlic cloves, minced
2  tbsp    peeled, minced ginger
1  tbsp    tomato paste
1 tbsp     Korean gochujang
1  lb        ground beef
4  oz       white mushrooms, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
¾  cup    finely chopped scallions
1/4 cup   light soy sauce
¼  cup    brown sugar
               Kosher salt and black pepper
12  oz    dried egg pasta (tagliatelle or pappardelle)

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened, three minutes. Add carrot and celery and cook for five minutes. Stir in garlic, ginger, tomato paste and gochujang.  Cook until caramelized, two to three minutes, lowering the heat as necessary to avoid burning. Return heat to medium.

Add beef, mushrooms and 1/2 cup of the scallions and cook, stirring to break up the beef, until beef is browned, three to four minutes. Add soy sauce, sugar and 1/4 cup of water and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer gently over low heat, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened, 30 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup scallions and season with pepper.  Taste and adjust your seasoning by adding a little more gochujang for extra spice or more soya sauce for a little more salt.

As sauce cooks, make the pasta: Bring a large pot of well-salted water to boil. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain.

Divide pasta in bowls and top with Bolognese. You could top the dish with grated parmesan.

NOTE: beware, if you use regular soya sauce, you risk making the sauce too salty.   You can reduce the amount of soya sauce and add more water to balance it out.