Best Bolognese sauce I ever came across

Before visiting Italy, I used to think bolognese sauce was way different, like tomatoes and meat. Girlfriend, was I wrong. I am lucky I got the recipe from a Florentine book.

The flavors in this sauce are very rich, and I like that it uses vegetables (that get cooked for very long) and my boy still loves it.

It is not an intensive tomato based sauce, even though it uses a lot of tomatoes, and once you try it, it is hard to order it at a restaurant and be happy, so it is a dangerous recipe.

It takes a long time to make, so I make a ton of it at once, it freezes very well. I also use left overs for a lasagna recipe, will post it soon....


Ingredients (I usually will cook 3 times this recipe at once)
  • One onion
  • One carrot
  • One stick of celery 
  • parsley
  • 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 300g minced meat (I like to combine pork, veal and beef, but sometime just do plain turkey and it also works fine)
  • 100g chicken livers (it looks weird at first, but will make a huge difference)
  • One glass red wine
  • 700g tomatoes (yes, you can use canned, make it one 14oz can)
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Pasta of your choice, cook as per instructions(I like tagliatelle)
Cook it
  1. Finely chop the onion, carrot, celery and parsley. Fry gently in the oil over a medium heat.
  2. Add the minced meat (do not use mince which is too lean!) and the washed and cleaned livers, finely chopped.
  3. Add salt and cook rapidly for at least ten minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon so that the meat does not stick to the pan.
  4. When the sauce has become golden brown in colour, add the wine and leave to evaporate.
  5. Lower the heat and add the peeled and puréed tomatoes (or canned). Cook over a low heat for half an hour and taste for salt.
If you want a very light sauce, stop here. If you want a much thicker, richer sauce (like the photo) , let it cook for an extra 1.5 hours, on very low heat. 

I serve it with a green salad and a loaf of bread. 

I freeze the extra sauce in Ice cube trays and put all the cubes in a zip lock bag, and just defrost what I need.

Great and emergency food.

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