Pasta Bolognese

 

 

This recipe is one I tweaked quite a bit before I was happy with it.  It's not particularly complicated to make but it does require prep time and you must allow several hours for the marriage of the sauce.  My grandmother always threw a chunk of Italian cheese in every sauce so that's what I do.  She also threw at least one turkey neck in every meat sauce (good luck finding one) so I do if I have one on hand.  I had no beef consommé in my pantry or I would have added a can of that too...this is really a taste and experiment kind of recipe.  If you have fresh herbs still growing in your garden, throw them in too...  Please note that this picture is of the sauce only...you will note how rich this is.  Normally, when I make this recipe, I do not serve it with bread because two starches are unnecessary.

 

 

Ingredients:

  

1 onion, finely chopped



3 stalks of celery or celery hearts, finely chopped

3 carrots, finely chopped

Pancetta

crimini, porcini or portabella mushrooms (dried and reconstituted in chicken broth...save the broth)

1 large can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes

2 cans of San Marzano tomato paste

1 lb. of ground pork

1 lb. of ground beef

2 cups of chicken broth

1 head of garlic (many cloves), chopped finely

1 large chunk of domestic parmesan with the skin on
fresh basil
1/2 cup of grated peccorini romano

 

I pick up a package of meatloaf seasoning and put that in the bowl with all the ground meat, plus fresh thyme and dried rosemary.  Mix these well with one egg and allow to sit for an hour or two to develop flavor....

 

In a large sauté pan, place 1 tbl. of butter and 1 tbl. of extra virgin olive oil.  Sweat the onion, celery and carrots for one half hour until soft.  Remove from heat.  Hold.

 

In a separate pan, sauté the pancetta (I used one half pound) and the reconstituted mushrooms with garlic powder, salt and pepper (same amount of butter and extra virgin olive oil) over very slow simmer.  This sauté is a slow simmer, so just wait about 30 minutes until the pancetta is golden brown.  Remove the pancetta and allow to cool. 

 

In the pancetta pan, put the ground meat.  This sauté is also slow.  Flavor with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Allow this to sauté over a simmer until meat is cooked.  Deglaze with one to two cups of a hearty red wine.  Shut off heat and allow this to cool down a little (it will reduce a little bit in its own liquid).

 

In a crockpot, put the tomatoes, tomato paste, the cooled onion mixture, the chunk of cheese, and then the remaining ingredients.  Allow the meat sauce to cook for several hours.  After two hours, taste it and season accordingly.  I added two cups of leftover beef gravy that I had in the fridge.  Then I added another 1/2 cup of pecorino romano cheese.

 

Serve over any cooked pasta that has ridges (under cook the pasta a tad if you are adding it to the sauce...otherwise cook to the al dente stage).  Serve this with freshly grated parmiagianno regianno

and a good bottle of hearty red chianti.