I grew up on good old fashioned spaghetti sauce. One weekend when I was in college I went home and my dad served beef bolognese. It was incredible! I found myself craving it and asking for it when I came home to visit.
My dad emailed me the recipe a couple years ago and it’s now one of my favorite “comfort food” Italian dishes to make. While I still love basic spaghetti sauce and keep it in the freezer at all times, I’m glad to have this in the repertoire and make it a few times a year.
Beef Bolognese
(Recipe source my Dad)
Ingredients:
1 -3 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1-2 stalks celery, diceed
1 carrot, shredded
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 pound pancetta, chopped
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 cup red wine
1 cup whole milk
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 14½-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano, or 1 tablespoon dried
About 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Kosher salt, to taste
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Freshly grated Parmesan, for garnish
Directions:
In a Dutch oven, over medium heat, cook ground beef until browned. Drain and set aside.
Wipe out Dutch oven and heat the oil. Add onion, celery and carrot and cook for about 5-8 minutes, until vegetables begin to soften and onion becomes translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the pancetta and cook for 5 minutes, then add the beef back to the pot. Add the wine and the remaining ingredients and simmer on low heat for 45 minutes. (Note, the longer it cooks, the better it gets. Leftovers are even better).
Serve with cooked tagliatelle or thin spaghetti pasta . Sprinkle with Parmesan.
Yield: 4-6 servings
This looks great. Recently saw an episode of Alton and he made a 5-hr bolognese that I wanted to make. I’ll make yours instead…since I don’t eat meat, I shouldnt put half a day into a meat sauce!
That looks like a wonderful bolognese – nice and meaty the way it should be!
Yum – this looks like a fantastic recipe! Perfect Italian comfort food!
We made this dish last night and I was not sure what to expect. I wondered how the bolognese would compare to regular spaghetti sauce. After making bolognese, I still can’t describe how they are different but my mouth knew that they were. All this to say, our family loved it. There are definitely some ingredients that made this dish feel more gourmet and thought through than your average spaghetti sauce. While browsing the web, I noticed that several other recipes called for parm rind and I happened to have one on hand and included that for flavor. I also think that it might be nice to render some of the fat from the pancetta and cook the veggies in the fat after removing the crisp pancetta. You could add it back in with the beef. A very solid and fail proof recipe.
Cristen – I’m so glad this turned out well for you. I don’t know what it is about bolognese sauce but it definitely puts a whole new twist on traditional spaghetti sauce. Maybe it’s the pancetta and whole milk?
Love your idea of adding the parm rind and sauteeing the veggis in the pancetta fat. Will try that next time I make this for sure!
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