Pasta Bolognese

I made this dish over six years ago and stumbled upon it recently when I decided to start remaking some recipes from blog posts past.

Like the last time I made it, my dad is visiting. When the sauce was simmering away on the stove my dad kept commenting how amazing it smelled and asked if I had ever made it before. I told him that I had, and that, in fact, he had been in town the last time I’d made it too. Interestingly enough when he dug into the pasta, he had the near exact same reaction as he did six years ago. (“This is good. This is good. No. You don’t understand. This is really good!”)

I changed the recipe slightly since the last time I made it. First of all, I doubled most of the ingredients (except for the cream). I wanted a huge pot of this stuff knowing how amazing it was last time. Plus, this time I wanted to use ground beef and ground pork (instead of ground turkey like I used last time I made this) and stores don’t sell ground pork or ground beef in half pound increments.

Because I doubled the recipe and was working with so much food, I needed a pot and a pan to make this recipe (versus one pot that I used last time). I also let the sauce simmer for a lot longer – six hours. I really wanted the sauce to reduce almost all the way down before adding the cream.

Also, I cut out the olive oil. I found that I could sauté the vegetables well enough using the bacon grease alone without having to add any olive oil. However, olive oil should of course be added to the dish if at any point the pan seems too dry. You don’t want your vegetables burning and/or sticking to the pan because there’s not enough fat in the pan.

ingredients.

• 1 large yellow onion, minced
• 4 carrots, peeled and minced
• 4 celery stalks, washed and minced
• 8 fresh tomatoes (on the vine), washed and cut in quarters
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced (or 1 T. minced garlic from the jar)
• 6 pieces of thick cut bacon, minced
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 28-oz cans whole plum tomatoes, drained (juice reserved)
• 1 c. reserved tomato juice
• 1 c. white wine
• 2 c. vegetable stock (I used homemade)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 c. heavy cream
• freshly grated parmesan cheese

directions.

1. Place the minced bacon in a large deep skillet and cook on medium-low heat as you mince the veggies. Add onions and garlic and cook for approximately 20 minutes until the bacon starts to crisp. Continue mincing your veggies. Add veggies carrots and celery and cook for 10 minutes longer or until all the veggies are tender.
2. When you add the carrots and the celery to the pan, in large pot cook the meat over medium heat until cooked through. Add veggie mixture to meat pot. Add the reserved tomato juice and white wine. Raise the heat a bit. Cook, stirring occasionally until mos the liquid evaporates, about five minutes.
3. Crush plum tomatoes with a fork and add to pot. Stir. Add fresh, quartered tomatoes. Add the stock. Turn the heat to low and cook at a slow simmer, stirring occasionally.
4. Mash up fresh tomatoes as the sauce simmers and the tomatoes begin to get soft.
5. After an hour add salt and pepper to taste. Cook another hour until most liquid is evaporated and the sauce is very thick.
6. Add the cream and cook for another 15-30 minutes on low heat.
7. Serve immediately over your favorite noodle.

Recipe rating: 