Bolognese Sauce
Italians call it a ragu` and French call it bolognaise. I call it GOOD! It's a meat based sauce originating from Bologna, Italy(I wonder if the deli meat is from the same place?). Anyway, I have been making this for years, because it's easy to throw together and it is very versatile. You can put this on just about any pasta, from spaghetti to cheese raviolis. I make this two ways: one is from all fresh tomatoes and the other is half can/half fresh tomatoes. The difference other than a variance in taste, is the all fresh tomatoes takes about 3 hours and the half canned takes about an hour. I have also made this w/o meat and it's still very tasty.
Ingredients:
8-10 Roma tomatoes,1-28oz can WHOLE tomatoes, 3 Celery Stocks chopped, 1 Onion diced, 4 Garlic cloves chopped, 2 Carrots chopped, 1lb Lean Ground beef, 1lb Italian Sausage, Fresh Parsley, Fresh Basil, 2T Pepper flakes, 2T Olive oil Salt/Pepper to taste, White wine (optional). If you are going to make this from all fresh tomatoes, then you will need about 6-8 lbs of tomatoes.First things first. You want to get all your veggies chopped
Chop your celery, onions, carrots and garlic, place in a bowl and set aside until time to use.
Next you are going to rough chop your roma tomatoes, basil and parsley. This is going into the food processor, so it doesn't need to be chopped small.
You're gonna need a big pan for this. If you don't have a really big one, use a stock pot. Add about 2T olive oil to a pan and let get hot.
Then you are going to add your sausage and beef. They do have the sausage in a ground form, but were out the day I went to the grocery store. Break it down with your spoon and brown.
It will take about 10 minutes then it will look like this:
When your meat is browned you are ready for the veggies you set aside
Add to your browned meat a mix in.
Let the veggies cook down for about 5 minutes. At this point if you want to add about 1/2 to 1cup of white wine, this is when you do it. If you do let cook for another 3-4 min. to let the wine reduce and the alcohol taste is gone.
While the meat is browning, get your food processor and add your canned/fresh tomatoes, handful of fresh parsley and basil, pepper flakes and salt.
Puree it until it is the consistency you like. I like mine a little chunky.
YUMMMY!
Add your tomatoes to the party and let simmer for about an hour.
After an hour this is what you end up with.
Pull out a loaf of bread, toast and spread this right on top. That's what I'm going to do right now!
