Spaghetti Bolognese

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This is one of my all time favorite pasta sauces. It is so yummy and is packed with tons of flavor. The best bolognese I’ve ever had was in Paris and it was in the form of a bolognese lasagna. Each layer was packed with homemade pasta, bolognese and a béchamel sauce… it was to die for (to say the least). Although I don’t usually serve it that way, simply put over pasta is pretty darn good. This recipe can be a bit time consuming, as many pasta sauces are, although most of the time required is inactive, so as long as you can check in on it every 20 minutes, you’ll be fine. I often double this recipe and freeze half.

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2/3 cup chopped celery (chopped very small)
• 2/3 cup chopped carrot (chopped very small)
• 3/4 pound ground beef chuck/pork (I recommend a combination of both)
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup dry white wine
• ~20 oz canned diced tomatoes
• salt and pepper

Put oil, butter and onion in pot and turn heat to medium. Cook and stir until onion is translucent, add celery and carrot. Cook about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat well.

Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble meat with fork, stir well, cook until beef has lost its raw, red color.

Add the milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently until it has bubbled away completely. Add 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg and stir.

Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated. Add tomatoes and stir thoroughly. When tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers. Cook uncovered for 3 hours or more, stirring occasionally. To keep sauce from drying out and sticking, continue the cooking, adding 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Take out some of the fat, correct for salt.

Toss with pasta, serve with parmesan on top!