Hi All,
Throwaway account since some friends know my reddit and don’t want to ruin the surprise.
I’ve been dating a new guy recently that I really like and his birthday is coming up. He loves my cooking (especially Italian dishes I’ve made) so I want to make something that will knock his socks off.
Right now I’m planning to make Pappardelle Bolognese with fresh pasta based on Kenji’s recipes but I’ve seen a lot of mixed feedback online about using chicken livers or not. Should I add them in or no? Or maybe add a reduced amount? Personally I enjoy liver but I’m not sure his taste.
Also any tips you have for making Bolognese is much appreciated since it’ll be my first time 🙂 Thank you very much in advance!!
Edit: For context, these are the Bolognese recipes I’m looking at.
[https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-slow-cooked-bolognese-sauce-recipe](https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-slow-cooked-bolognese-sauce-recipe)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvROmO5ODnQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvROmO5ODnQ)
by throwaway_newguy5871
23 Comments
I used Bourdain’s recipe and included them. I think it made the difference but he probably won’t even be able to detect them. You can sub in calves livers instead.
I have made Kenji’s recipe and actually prefer the one from salt fat acid heat. Give it a try sometime. I am on team no livers, even though they are subtle. And I do eat liver generally but I don’t think it is the best in this dish.
https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/fat/benedettas-ragu
To paraphrase Kenji himself on multiple occasions, if you like chicken livers, use chicken livers. If you don’t, don’t. 🙂
They’re like tomato paste or anchovies. It’s for depth of flavor. You can’t taste them. So yes!!!
I’ve never tried it, but in the UK there is a chef called Tom Kerridge who swears by roasting his bolognese sauce.
I don’t use livers. I don’t like it and I can always tell. I do tend to put a chunk of parm rind in chicken stock and let that go for quite a while.
I make Barbara Lynch’s bolognese recipe all the time and it uses chicken livers. It definitely adds that liver flavor a little mineral like and richness. I think if you let it simmer for a long time it becomes less pronounced and adds a lot more umami.
[Barbara Lynch’s Tagliatelle Bolognese Recipe
by J. Kenji López-Alt](https://www.seriouseats.com/barbara-lynchs-tagliatelle-bolognese-recipe-boston-chef-no-9-park)
I’m on team no livers
Add some dark chocolate too!
If you’re making it for him and not sure if he likes them just leave them out. Some people don’t like the mineral taste that it’s add, but I doubt it would be a bad dish without them.
Simple dish to make to see if he likes chicken livers is dirty rice.
I always add it and if you let it cook off for long enough, you won’t taste the liver but it’ll add a really nice umami richness. If you want to be safe when cooking for another person whose palette is less used to these things, you can always leave it out and just add fish sauce at the end or MSG for extra umami.
I love chicken liver and my absolute favorite pasta dish I had in Italy was made with a chicken liver bolognese. If you like liver, highly recommend trying it. And as others have said, if you don’t like chicken liver, skip it 🙂 for example, if it called for beef liver, that would be a big NO from my taste buds.
I’ve used them before, it’s a relatively small amount and chopped up fine it’s not noticeable as being liver-y to me. If you have a particularly strong aversion to them and hate them with a passion maybe you’ll notice the flavor and be sad but otherwise I doubt it
I’ve also made it without since I have a hard time finding them and it’s been just fine. Either way it’ll be good
I guess we can say no to livers, but yes to parm rind. That’s amore!
Iv never used the livers. Iv made it many times and substituted it will pate instead. You definitely don’t taste the pate in it. I’m sure you wouldn’t taste the liver either but I can’t stomach the thought it the liver. But the pate does give the dish a similar result I believe
I think liver is a polarizing ingredient and I wouldn’t use it unless I knew someone was going to like it
Honestly, taste often while you make it. Last time I made a bolognese I had to slap the sugar out of my brother in laws’ hand. The tomatoes we had were sweet and didn’t need it. As many have said, if you like the flavor use it. Since it is your first time, I recommend 2 things:
Stay simple
Use less salt than you think early on. You can always add more, can’t take it out.
Edit: formatting
Use them. The amount is small enough and they’re minced fine enough that you can’t taste them, but they add a necessary depth to the sauce. I wouldn’t make it without them.
My bolognese recipe has evolved over the years I’ve been making it, but it started from an extremely simplified version of Heston Blumenthal’s recipe: https://kokrobin.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/spaghetti-bolognese/
I puree the livers into a smooth paste, which I think the recipe calls for. 100% not optional for me. I’ve had bolognese from great Italian restaurants and it always feels like they’re missing something.
I don’t use chicken livers but do put anchovy paste into every red sauce I make. You’d never know.
This recipe is an insane recipe with so much going on. You can easily leave them out if you are concerned about them. When I made this I followed the recipe and made the lasagne. Most of us found it very tasty but insanely rich and heavy. I ended up cutting my lasagne horizontally and added a large amount of simple tomato based sauce around the whole thing. It was still super rich, very tasty , and in most peoples’ opinions better.
I haven’t tried Kenji’s bolognese recipe so can’t speak to it, but I’ve had wild success with [Marcella Hazan’s bolognese](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015181-marcella-hazans-bolognese-sauce). It takes hours but the payoff is SOLID.