The Tool Giada De Laurentiis Uses To Break Up Tomatoes In Bolognese
Celebrity chef Giada de Laurentiis knows a thing or two about Italian cooking. Yet even when cooking the classics, she has a few tricks up her sleeve, like making a chicken parm sans breading or a lasagna without layers. In her recipe for a 20-minute Bolognese, de Laurentiis continues with this tradition. She breaks up whole tomatoes with one common kitchen tool. That tool isn't a knife, nor is it a spoon. Rather, it's scissors, which snip those tomatoes in no time at all.
Specifically, de Laurentiis uses baby cherry tomatoes from Southern Italy, which come small, but whole. The kitchen scissors therefore allow her to break each tomato into smaller chunks, helping to consolidate her Bolognese. After all, nobody wants whole tomatoes in what's supposed to be a sauce, so scissors bring the ingredients one step closer to a classic ragu.
However, there's yet another reason de Laurentiis specifically uses scissors over other techniques. "Don't knock me; it's tradition," she explains in a Giadzy video. Indeed, scissors are commonly used in Italy. The Romans, for example, often cut pizza with scissors rather than a knife. To embrace the Italian technique for yourself, grab your own pair — and a wooden mixing spoon.
Scissors aren't the only trick up Giada de Laurentiis' sleeve
Whether or not they're cut with kitchen scissors, canned tomatoes are the key to Giada de Laurentiis' expedited Bolognese. After all, the sauce is generally known to take some time; it's a recipe that requires simmering, and can cook for a few hours. De Laurentiis, however, speeds up this process by using canned cherry tomatoes, which don't require much time to cook. Specifically, she uses the brand Corbara.
Once you've acquired your canned cherry tomatoes, you can start cooking. Cook onion, carrot, and garlic in olive oil over medium high heat. After seasoning, add ground beef and use a wooden spoon — not scissors — to break up the meat. Once that cooks, you can add your canned cherry tomatoes. Now's the time to use your scissors to break them up. Alternatively, you can use your wooden spoon. That option, however, is less fun — though no less Italian.
Finally, de Laurentiis seasons her tomato mixture with basil, a parmesan rind, and salt. After just 15 minutes, the sauce will come together — and you can put your scissors back in the drawer.