- The Melbourne star has a vlog about healthy recipes on Instagram
- Shares a range of nutritious meal suggestions
- Has divided fans with his version of the Italian classic
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Melbourne Demons star Christian Petracca may have unknowingly sparked the world’s biggest Italian food scandal since pineapple was added to pizza.
Petracca is an avid cook and shares a range of healthy, nutritious recipes on his Instagram channel OnTrac5.
Some of his recent vlogs include Drunken Noodles, Sheet Fried Chicken, and Lemon Yogurt Cake.
But it was his recent video of his special Spaghetti Bolognese that raised many eyebrows.
There was the fact that he misspelled Bolognese as ‘Bolagnaise’. There was also the fact that he used fetuccini instead of spaghetti.
Petracca has a vlog on Instagram where he shares his healthy meal recipes with his followers, including his take on Spaghetti Bolognese
Fans agreed with most of the ingredients Petracca used, resulting in a beautiful final dish, but milk divided his followers
The one ingredient that shocked most people, however, was his use of a large splash of milk.
‘Milk? I’ve never heard of milk in spag sauce,” said one follower
‘Why milk? Nonna has never told me this part,” another posted.
“Milk (shocked emoji)…. That’s not how Southern Italians roll! The Benevento Nonna definitely doesn’t do that in her kitchen,” posted yet another.
“Wow milk.. very interesting addition,” added another.
While the addition of milk may seem strange to some, it is a common practice in many kitchens, including by professional chefs.
One follower listed the reasons why using milk is essential for a quality bolognese.
- Adds depth of richness to the sauce
- Helps make the minced meat more tender
- Cuts the acidity just a little bit more
- Provides a silky smooth finish to the sauce
‘For those who are a little baffled. It’s traditional. You’ve eaten pasta at restaurants with milk…you just didn’t know it,” they posted.
However, the lines are firmly divided between chefs, with some refusing to use milk in their pasta.
“My nonna didn’t use it and I don’t remember using it in Ambrogio (one Michelin star restaurant in Bologna),” Italian Bolognese chef Gianluca Gangetti told SBS Food.
However, Melbourne-based chef and pasta maker Christian Folletti uses a whole liter of milk for every 600 grams of meat.
‘You don’t have to cook it for hours, like nowadays. We can afford better cuts of meat, but you definitely need milk,” he said.
Australia’s celebrity chef Nat – who rose to fame during the pandemic lockdowns with his recipes on his Nat’s What I Reckon channel – is also a proponent of milk in Bolognese.
“An ingredient that I know looks confusing, but it’s fucking milk,” he says during his End of Days Bolognese video.
‘You don’t have to put milk in it, but trust me, it damn works.
“I know it’ll irritate your head, but trust me, put a cup of milk in it.”