Sloppy Joe’s, a movie burger made with bolognaise sauce
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Total: 2 h Diners: 4
I got to know Sloppy Joe’s thanks to an Olsen sisters movie I watched on loop as a child. It was called “Two for the Price of One” and, not wanting to give away the secrets of this children’s work of art – there’s room for laughter inside me as I write these letters – I’ll just say that one of the sequences in the film featured this spicy bolognaise burger as the star meal of the camp.
The Olsen sisters gobbled it up with fruition and love, their whole faces smeared with the sauce. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to try Sloppy Joe. It wouldn’t be until years later, when I started a food truck for a short stint, that I would decide to release this sandwich for sale and perfect the recipe.
I started from a ragù alla bolognese with all the differential appreciations that can be made of a recipe so popular throughout Italy – each mother adds what she wants – and from there I enriched a minced meat stew with tomato whose secret, for me, lies in a very slow cooking at low temperature for at least two hours. This way we will get a creamy and juicy but not liquid result, full of flavor and very spicy. Sometimes I have used it as it is inside a good buttered brioche to assemble a hamburger and others I have added some coriander and mint leaves and a little fried onion on top.
Of course, this stew that fills the most famous hamburger in Iowa (Sioux City, in particular) and that you can buy ready-made in cans in the United States, you can assemble an endless number of recipes with it. I can think of a delicious lasagna, a meat pie, a corn pie, some cannelloni, some empanadas or simply place it on a plate, without bread, accompanied by fries or onion rings and also a little rice and Vegetable Recipes or pickles; a dish that there are often named as the Beefeater.
How to make Sloppy Joe’s
Ingredients
. Mixed minced pork and beef, 250 g Onion, 1 pc Garlic cloves, 3 pc Red bell pepper, 1 pc Carrot, 1 pc Leek, 2 pc Red wine, 200 ml Crushed tomato, 450 g Bay leaf, 1 leaf Brown sugar, 1 teaspoon Salt, tsp Ground black pepper, tsp Extra virgin olive oil, 6 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 2 teaspoons Cumin, pinch Ketchup, 1 tablespoon
Step 1
Heat in the pot, a large pot because later it will also have to house the Vegetable Recipes and tomato, some of the olive oil and brown over high heat the minced meat. We could incorporate here, if we wanted a little chopped Iberian bacon that gives a very good taste. When it is very well browned remove.
Step 2
In the same pot, add a little more oil if necessary and add the chopped garlic, the peeled and finely chopped onion, the white part of the leeks also chopped, and the carrot and red bell pepper chopped into small squares. Add a little salt and begin to poach over low heat. We want to make almost a vegetable jam, so we will poach over low heat until everything is very reduced.
Step 3
Add then the red wine and let it evaporate well over high heat, we want to lose the strength of the alcohol.
Step 4
Incorporate the meat back into the stew, mix everything well and sprinkle with the crushed tomato. Add the sugar and the bay leaf and let the whole mixture cook over a very low heat for two hours, covered occasionally, to obtain a thick, mellow, non-liquid bolognese.
Step 5
After all this stewing time, the last thing is to season with Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, more sugar if necessary, cumin and pepper and mix everything very well.
Step 6
To assemble the burgers, open the brioche buns in half and brown both inside and out lightly. Then, just fill them with the wonderful stew you have prepared. You could add some pickles or fresh Vegetable Recipes on top.