Bolognese Sauce

Perfect weekend recipe. Your patience will be rewarded with great flavor!


From Andrea's Passions
  • Essentials
  • Ground Beef/Pork (1 kg)
  • Tomato Paste (1 can (156 mL))
  • Celery (3 stalks, diced)
  • Carrot (3, diced)
  • Onion (large, diced)
  • Garlic (4 cloves, sliced)
  • Red Wine (half bottle, see notes below)
  • Heavy Cream (30% mf, 1/4 cup)
  • Herbs (see notes below)
  • Parmesan Cheese
  • Pasta (see notes below)
  • Salt/pepper (to taste)
  • Optional
  • Worcestershire Sauce
  • Parsley (sliced, for looks)

    • Instructions

    1. Prepare all ingredients before beginning (mise en place).

    2. Heat oil in a large pot on medium high heat until slightly smoking.

    3. Add in onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. Add generous amount of salt to draw out the liquid in the veggies. Cook until they start to brown on the bottom of the pot.

    4. Turn heat to high and add ground beef, breaking up into small pieces. Season with salt and pepper.

    5. Cook until beef is browned and brown bits (fond) accumulate on the bottom.

    6. Turn heat down to medium and add in the tomato paste. Cook for about 1 minute until tomato paste changes color slightly.

    7. Deglaze the bottom of the pot with the red wine and scrape the bottom to loosen the fond (fond = flavor). Turn heat to medium high and reduce the wine until at least half is gone.

    8. Add in all your fancy herbs and stir around to mix.

    9. Add enough water to ensure that all the meat/vegetables is covered. Bring the sauce to a simmer and keep on medium-low with the lid off.

    10. Cook for 2-4 hours. More time = more flavor. Check on the pot every hour to see if more water needs to be added. Note that adding water will cool the sauce so you may need to adjust the temperature again to bring it to a simmer.

    11. When sauce is 30 minutes away from being finished, start cooking the pasta until al dente. Make sure to salt your pasta water.

    12. Add heavy cream to the sauce and stir until mixed thoroughly. You can also grate parmesan cheese into the sauce now or grate it when eating.

    13. Taste test to check for seasoning. Add salt/pepper as needed.

    Notes


    General

    This recipe was taken from Not Another Cooking Show. They used a food processor to break the vegetables into small pieces instead of cutting which saves a lot of time, but I don't have a food processor, so I must suffer.

    Wine Pairing

    You can use any cheap dry red wine that you find at your grocery store or liquor store. Read the labels for the wine to see if they mention what they pair well with. If they say that they pair well with tomato sauces, then it will probably be good. Some suggestions are: Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chianti

    Herbs

    • Dried Thyme
    • Dried Oregano
    • Dried Bay Leaf
    • Paprika
    • Cayenne Pepper
    • Garlic Powder
    • Onion Powder

    Add whatever herbs you have that you think would go well with the sauce. I prefer dried herbs because they last longer. Herbs will bring different flavors to the dish and give the impression that you are a good cook.

    Pasta

    Use whatever pasta you have, but I prefer pasta with irregular shapes that will hold the sauce better. Some suggestions are: Penne, Rigatoni, Fusilli.