There is just something about long, twirl-able noodles covered in rich meat sauce that is so exciting.
My best friend and her mom are fantastic cooks, and introduced me to Bolognese sauce a couple of years ago, and it quickly morphed into one of my all-time favorite meals.
I’ve read every Bolognese recipe ever written. I truly enjoy cooking it just as much as I enjoy eating it. It is something of a labor of love to cook, but you learn how to make this sauce and you won’t forget it. It’s actually quite easy- the most time consuming part is browning your meat and dicing your veggies.
I would make this hearty meat sauce several times a month, but I am the only one in my family who particularly enjoys it, so I’ve made this is my go-to meal to take friends and family after having babies, procedures, etc etc.
Food, if you don’t know by now, is my love language. If I have ever brought you Bolognese, just know I love ya.
This is my personal favorite way to make Bolognese, and I’ve tried several variations. However, sometimes I will use a chuck roast instead of ground meat and it’s divine.
Also, one of the last steps is to simmer the sauce for at least an hour. I treat this more of an all-day situation and let my sauce simmer all day.
One last thing worth noting is that this sauce only gets more flavorful the longer is sits (covered) in the fridge.
If you’re making this for a crew of people, feel free to make it the day before, let it cook all day, and then put it in the fridge after it’s completely cool. Throw it back on the stove the next day about 30 before you’re ready to eat.
Prepare to be showered in compliments.
Okay let’s make it.
In a large stock pot or heavy bottomed sauce pan, brown your hamburger meat first, and while it’s cooking, dice your onion, carrots, and celery.
You will need 1 onion, 2 carrots and 2 pieces of celery for 2 pounds of meat. You can of course add more if your family likes a chunky sauce.
I must dice my veggies super small so that my kids won’t pick them out. I’ve even gone as far as using an immersion blender on this recipe before adding the meat back in, and it was basically chili. You’re welcome.
Onion dicing tip: remove the peel, cut the top and bottom off, and cut the onion in half. Holding one half of the onion tight, use your knife to cut slits in the onion about ½ inch or away from the other end. Get your talons out, holding the onion with your knuckles with greatly reduce your chances of chopping your finger off.
Follow your knuckles with the knife and you’ll have a perfectly diced onion.
Drain your hamburger from the pan, and add in your Italian sausage. Once the sausage is cooked, you can either move it to a strainer with a slotted spoon if you want to reserve the fat.
This is where my recipe takes a slightly less authentic taste, but it’s well worth it. I like to drop a couple of tablespoons of butter in the hot pan, followed by a fat scoop of bacon fat. I can’t explain the flavor difference using butter & bacon fat here, umami bomb.com.
Umami: A Japanese word that can loosely be translated into “a delicious savory food”.
Once your butter and bacon fat are melted down, toss in your chopped onion, carrots & celery. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until your vegetables start to become translucent. It will also begin to smell like heaven on Earth in your kitchen.
This is the fastest working part of this recipe: once the veggies are cooked down and almost (but not quite) beginning to brown, drop in 3-4 cloves of minced garlic and season with salt, or use anchovy paste if you can find it. Stir until the aroma of the garlic has entered through your nostrils and into your heart.
Next, stir in a big spoonful of tomato paste and about 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. If you don’t like much heat go easy on the red pepper flakes, but do not skip!!
You may have noticed there is literally no seasoning or herbs in this sauce (besides salt). All the flavor comes from the sweetness of the carrots and the savory veggies, garlic and red pepper. It’s crucial you put a little bit in there.
You will stir the tomato paste and red pepper for about 60-90 seconds until the veggies begin to brown and glaze to the bottom of the pot.
I like to use balsamic vinegar as my deglazing agent here. You don’t need more than a tablespoon or two. Just splash it in and use your spatula to really scrape the yummy goodness off the bottom of the pot.
The classic tomatoes to use here is a 28 ounce can of peeled San Marzano tomatoes. I’m about to do some experimenting with other forms of tomatoes. Stay tuned on that.
Pour in the can of tomatoes, and 2(ish) cups of beef broth and bring to a boil. Stir back in your hamburger meat and sausage, and reduce to a simmer for at least 1 hour.
You can simmer this as long as you want, I like to let it go for 3 or 4 hours over a visible simmer, and then I’ll turn it to very low for a couple more hours if time allows.
After walking around your house all day and smelling this astoundingly good sauce, it’s finally almost time to eat.
Boil your pasta in salted water to al dente, or one or two minutes less than what the box says. The preferred pasta shape for Bolognese sauce is a long thin noodle like spaghetti or
tagliatelle. The latter is my favorite!
This time I used linguine because it’s what I had on hand, and its shape is thicker than spaghetti, but thinner than tagliatelle.
While your pasta is cooking, turn the heat off and your meat sauce and pour in about ¼ to ½ cup of heavy cream (that has been sitting on the counter to come to room temperate to prevent curdling).
Finish by topping the cheese with grated parmesan or Pecorino Romano. Screw it, use both.
Use a measuring cup and reserve about ½ to 1 cup of the pasta water, drain your noodles. If your noodles got a little hard and dried out while you drained them, throw em in a bowl and pour a little of the reserved pasta water back in. Mix and stir, don’t overuse the water. Don’t even use it if you don’t need to.
Now, it’s up to you on if you put the noodles into the sauce or if you keep them separate and spoon the sauce into your individual bowls over noodles.
If you plan on all the sauce being gone within a couple of days, I would go ahead and put the noodles in the sauce. The more the sauce can bind to the starchy noodles, the better.
Top your bowl with a little more parm and go to town!
Bolognese Sauce
Ingredients:
1 lb. hamburger meat
1 lb. Italian sausage (A tube of Jimmy Dean works just fine)
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
Butter (unsalted Kerrigold is my favorite)
Bacon fat (I have a mason jar full that I keep in my pantry)
Salt or anchovy paste
Red pepper flakes
Tomato paste (I love Trader Joes’s tubes of Tomato paste!)
Balsamic vinegar
Beef broth
1- 28oz can peeled San Marzano tomatoes
¼-1/2 C. heavy ream
Parmesan cheese
Pecorino Romano cheese, optional
Directions
Brown your hamburger meat.
Dice your onion, celery & carrots.
Drain your hamburger meat and add sausage. Drain.
Add butter & bacon fat. Sautee veggies until translucent, about 10 minutes over medium heat.
Add garlic and salt, stir until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
Add tomato paste and red pepper flakes, stirring 1-2 more minutes.
Deglaze with 1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.
Add 2 cups beef broth and 1- 28oz can of San Marzano tomatoes. Turn heat up and bring to boil.
Add your hamburger and sausage back, and reduce your heat to a low simmer. Cook for 1 hour minimum.
Cook your pasta in salted water until al dente, usually about 1 minute less than what is on the box. Reserve about 1 cup of pasta water.
Turn the heat off on your sauce and add in room temperature heavy cream. Sprinkle in parmesan and pecorino cheeses. Stir to mix and melt.
Top each bowl with a little more cheese and enjoy!!
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