Pasta Bolognese

Handmade pasta with a bolognese sauce is one of my favorite foods. The meaty flavor of the sauce with the soft chewiness of the pasta is so good. Whenever I see in on a menu I have to order it. Though that may change after doing my experiment today I found out it was really easy.

This recipe is modified from one Mario Batali has on the food network site. I like my sauce to have more tomato in it so I modified it.

Recipe:

1/4c Olive oil
2 medium onions (chopped)
4 celery stalks (chopped)
5 cloves of garlic (smashed, sliced, or chopped)
1 lb ground veal
1 lb ground pork
1/4 lb pancetta (sliced to ribbons)
1 25oz can peeled whole tomatoes (low or no salt kind.)
1 6oz can tomato paste
1/2c whole milk
1tsp Thyme (dried or fresh)
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Tips on buying ingredients:

I know it seems like this stuff is obvious but I just want to reinforce the point. What your food tastes like relies entirely on the quality of your ingredients.

This doesn't mean you have to spend more money to get the best ones. You just need to know what is in the food you're buying.

So when buying canned foods read the ingredients list and check sodium content. If it seems like a lot it probably is.

This doesn't only have to apply to canned food. The spices in grocery stores are terrible compared to the stuff you get at a specialty spice store. If you can't find one around you buy them online.

Also fresh fruits and vegetables can often be disappointing especially fruit. You should only buy fresh fruits if they are in season and use frozen fruit if they are not . Frozen fruit usually tastes better than out of season fruit because they are picked when the are ripe and don't spend time aging in the back of a truck.



Pancetta was a new ingredient for me. I'm just a home cook and have never cooked with it before. Its kind of like bacon only its not smoked and usually dry aged for a few months. It comes in rolled up pieces and I recommend buying it at the deli counter. The prepackaged kind is a lot more expensive and not nearly as tasty.
When slicing it use slow sawing motions not fast downward motions. The fat is very slippery.

When choosing canned tomatoes try and find the ones which only have tomatoes on the ingredient list. Tomato juice and water are ok but try and avoid any with added salt or seasoning. You can use diced or pureed tomatoes if you want but I like chunks of them in my sauce. Also whole tomatoes have been processed less which is better for their flavor.

The tomato paste I use only has one ingredient, tomato paste.

Also I usually get the celery hearts instead of the big bunches of celery. They are washed and trimmed and I end up paying less per pound after subtracting what I usually end up throwing away.


Start Cooking:

Get a large pot and heat up your 1/4 cup of oil . You want a pot with a lot of surface area because we will be using it later to brown the meat as well.
I used a 6 quart pot.
Once the oil comes to temperature turn it down to low and add add your celery, onions, and garlic. Also add a pinch of salt. You want to sweat these till they translucent.

To sweat means to heat them evenly on low temperature so their flavors can meld together. if you see any browning, or hear a lot of sizzling your heat is up to high. Thanks AB!

Once that is done turn the heat to high and Brown your ground meat and pancetta. You don't need to get too much color on it but you do want to make sure the meat is cooked through. Although more color will bring a lot of flavor to it.

When your meat has browned its time to add the liquids. Add the canned tomatoes, paste, and milk. Also now is the time for your spices so add the thyme and any extra salt and pepper you want, but remember the pancetta may have had a fair bit of salt in it so taste it before you add any.
If you wanted to you could trade the liquid in the canned tomato with red or white wine. I didn't have any on hand so I used the tomato juice.


Let it simmer for 1-1.5 hours on low heat stirring occasionally. It will reduce by about 1/4.

Serve over your favorite pasta, Enjoy.

This along with the fresh pasta we made was enough to serve 6 hungry adults.