Korean Bulgogi Bolognese

- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2tablespoons safflower or canola oil
- 1cup finely chopped onion
- 1cup finely chopped carrot
- 1cup finely chopped celery
- 7garlic cloves, minced
- 2tablespoons peeled, minced ginger
- 2tablespoons tomato paste
- 1pound ground beef
- 4ounces white button mushrooms, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
- ¾cup finely chopped scallions
- ¾cup low-sodium soy sauce
- ¼cup turbinado sugar
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 12ounces dried egg pasta (tagliatelle or pappardelle)
- Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened, 3 minutes. Add carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, ginger and tomato paste and cook until caramelized, 2 to 3 minutes, lowering the heat as necessary to avoid burning. Return heat to medium.
- Step 2
Add beef, mushrooms and ½ cup of the scallions and cook, stirring to break up the beef, until beef is browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Add soy sauce, sugar and ¼ 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 ¼ cup scallions and season with pepper.
- Step 3
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.
- Step 4
Divide pasta in bowls and top with Bolognese. Serve with Parmesan.
Private Notes
Comments
I've investigated the matter of substituting gochujang for tomato paste. I have concluded that you can and you should.
Loved this with some adjustments to make it more Korean. I used 1/2 gochugang and 1/2 tomato paste and only about 2tbs of soy sauce, added a splash of mirin (and reduced sugar since mirin is sweet). I also used some of the pasta water to help make it more saucy. Finally, I garnished with some toasted sesame seeds.
We've made this about 5 times now, making little adjustments each time. Goldilocks for us was add a TBLof gochujang (replacing the tomato paste entirely with this was way to hot), reducing the sugar to 1 TBL (way too sweet with a 1/4 cup), cut the soy sauce to 1/2 cup, add about another cup of mushrooms, and a bit more of the celery and carrots just because we wanted a little more veggies in it. We also use ground turkey instead of beef. A real winner. This has become one of our regular meals!
This is a really fine Italian Korean fusion dish. I used a whole pound of pasta and 8 oz (one pack) of mushrooms, went a tad less on sugar but otherwise made as written. Enjoyed by fam including a 5-yo. Looking at comments, I get people want to use gochujang but bulgogi doesn’t have gochujang so I didn’t and I’m glad I didn’t. Instead for heat I sprinkled crushed pepper flakes. I can see kimchi being a good side dish for this too.
I used 1/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sugar, and a little extra water and thought that gave a good balance of salty and sweet. I can't imagine using 3/4 cup of soy sauce. I also used half gochujang and half tomato paste, I think I would up the amount of gochujan the next time.
Thought this was a little dry. Made a sauce to work in. 2 cups beef broth, 1 cup low sodium soy sauce, 6 ounces mushrooms finely diced and four tablespoons corn starch over low heat. Turned out amazing!
