Vietnamese Bolognese (Bo Kho Meat Sauce)

Where do I get recipe ideas? From all over. Much of my career has been about presenting classics in doable but not dumbed down fashion. I believe in understanding foundations before riffing. I love classics and icons but also appreciate well done twists on the ultra familiar. 

Last year someone on Instagram told me that after eating a Vietnamese bolognese at the Le family’s The Pig and the Lady in Honolulu, she made my bò kho beef stew with star anise and lemongrass from Vietnamese Food Any Day, cooking the beef to extra tenderness so she could hand shred it and serve the whole shebang over pasta. It was super tasty, she reported. Maybe I would come up with a recipe? 

I made a darn good version and then after recently dining at The Pig and The Lady and trying their bolognese, I fine-tuned my recipe more. It’s easy, fast and spot-on Viet flavor but with certain Italian notes. It’s ready for you!

Hold on. Is it ok to mess with a classic?

Bolognese meat sauce is sacred to many and I’ve made Marcella Hazan’s 4-hour braise with milk and white wine. As my friend

David Lebovitz wrote on his blog, Marcella upheld Italian standards. She was a woman who enjoyed her mink coat, whiskey, and cigarettes. She also wrote Italian cookbooks that many people, including me, reference and revere.

There are connections between bolognese and bò kho (“baw kaw”). Within their respective cuisines, both are culinary icons – long-simmered, ragu-like stews featuring beef, tomato, aliums, and some spices. The beloved aromatic Viet beef stew, a southern specialty, includes lots of warm spices, ginger, and lemongrass. It can be spicy, mellow or somewhere in between.

Bolognese and bò kho are comfort foods and everyone has their rendition. My family’s version dates to the 1950s Saigon, where my mom coaxed the recipe from a work colleague. I’ve tweaked it over the years and have learned that it can be taken in many directions and still be Viet.

After all, the Vietnamese stew can be served with baguette or noodles, or as a brothy noodle soup. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It’s flexible and can be played with.

But, any time you mess with a classic, you want to make sure that the original sensibilities remain. After several trials, I assure you that the bò kho-ness of bò kho remain in this rich, flavorful, fragrant meat sauce. I’m pretty sure you can make a vegetarian version too (I've included tips in the recipe end notes).

Aside from the flavor, bò kho bolognese meat sauce has these positives:

• Better distribution of flavor to coat noodles and pasta
• Same ingredients used but they’re easier to prep
• Faster cooking time than a stew (ground meat is in small bits)
• Less meat involved (great for low-meat eaters and those on a tight budget)
• Can be repurposed for other dishes (lasagna! Sloppy Joe’s!)

This meat sauce isn’t meant to replace the stew. It’s just recipe to serve up the stew in a different way. All the same ingredients are used but in a different manner.

In other words, this Vietnamese bolognese is worth adding to your repertoire! When I mentioned the recipe to my mom, she lit up with interest.

I’ve been developing this recipe for a while and am delighted to present it with a how-to video, text recipe, downloadable recipe PDF, and lots of tips. The content is exclusively for paid subscribers of my newsletter, Pass the Fish Sauce. If you don't know about the newsletter, learn about it here. Or, head straight to the bò kho bolognese newsletter dispatch.