Bolognese Sauce
Bolognese Sauce| This easy to make delicious rich slow cooked Italian sauce is what scrumptious sauce dreams are made of. The perfect go to Italian dinner for a busy week. Make this Bolognese Sauce on Sunday night and store it in the refrigerator. All that’s left to do is heat up the sauce, boil some pasta, add a big salad and crusty sourdough bread!
The deep rich combination of flavors from the vegetables, ground beef, beef stock, red wine, tomatoes and tomato paste really work well together to create a unique flavor nothing like spaghetti sauce.
Here’s a little history behind Bolognese Sauce. The sauce is named after the city of Bologna in northern Italy, Bolognese is a rich, meaty sauce based on beef and soffritto-a finely chopped mixture of celery, onion, carrot, and garlic. Serve with the pasta of your choice.
Pour sauce into a freezer safe zip top bag (once it has cooled enough). Freeze flat and then store upright like a book. This technique saves a lot of freezer space!
Bolognese
Ingredients
- 1 large or 2 small celery stalk, diced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 large or 2 small carrot, diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 cup beef stock
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1 can (14.5 ounces) chopped tomatoes
- 8 grates of fresh nutmeg or 1/8 teaspoon of ground
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 16 ounce pasta, cooked according to the package directions
- Fresh Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Heat on medium high heat the oil and butter in a large pot until butter is melted.
- Turn the heat down to medium, add the celery, onion, carrot, and garlic to the oil and butter and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes, or until softened but not browned.
- Add the meat to the softened vegetables, break it up with a wooden spoon, then cook until it loses its redness, stirring frequently.
- Sprinkle in the flour and stir in well.
- Add the tomato paste, beef stock, red wine, and tomatoes.
- Using a nutmeg grater (or micro plane) held over the pot, add about 8 gratings of fresh nutmeg. Add salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, stirring constantly then reduce the heat to very low so that the mixture is just simmering.
- Partially cover the pot, making sure steam can still escape.
- Cook the sauce for about 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so to check that the mixture is not sticking to the bottom of the pot. If it is, add a little water and stir well.
- When ready, the sauce will be thick and glossy.
- Taste to check seasoning.
- Keep the sauce warm and cook pasta.
- Pour sauce over the pasta and mix.
- NOTE: The sauce can be made and kept, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 3 months.
- Garnish with fresh Parmesan cheese.
ASIAN NOODLE BOWL 2. LIGHT RED PEPPER AND BEEF PASTA 3. MUSHROOM AND PEA FARFALLE
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Hi Sheryl,
Your Bolognese looks delicious. A great combination of flavor and a great recipe. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and hope to see you next week!
mmm I love finding new recipes! and LOVE LOVE LOVE finding new pasta ones!!