Authentic Bolognese Sauce
- 400 grams Ground beef (ground mixed pork and beef is fine too)
- 2 Onions (for the caramelized onions)
- 4 to 5 small Eggplants (for the grilled eggplant)
- 1/2 stalk Celery (finely chopped)
- 2/3 to 1 Garlic (finely chopped)
- 30 ml A. Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 small cloves A. Garlic (finely chopped)
- 200 ml Red wine
- 1 can B. Canned diced tomatoes
- 200 ml B. Water
- 2 B. Soup stock cubes
- 1 B. Bay leaf (whole leaves or powder)
- 1 C. Salt
- 1 C. Pepper
- 1 Nutmeg (ground)
- 1 Oregano (dried)
- Make caramelized onions using 2 onions.
- Make the grilled eggplant, using eitheror, and peel the eggplant.
- Cut up the flesh as small as possible and put into a bowl.
- Put the A. ingredients in a cold pan, and start cooking the garlic in oil over low heat.
- When the pan has a nice garlic fragrance and the garlic is lightly colored, add the celery and carrots.
- Add the C. ingredients and saute while shaking the pan.
- Saute the vegetables for about 5 minutes while stirring constantly, to draw out the sweetness of the vegetables.
- This is very important.
- Add the ground meat to the pan.
- Set the heat to medium.
- Add a generous amount of the nutmeg from the C. ingredient list, and saute the ground meat until it is completely crumbly.
- Add the red wine.
- Turn up the heat a bit and simmer well until it's almost all evaporated.
- Add the B. ingredients to the pan, along with the caramelized onions and grilled eggplant you made in Steps 1 and 2.
- Add any liquid that came out of those vegetables too.
- When the sauce comes to a boil, transfer the pan to the burner with the weakest heat.
- Set it to the lowest level possible (level 1) and simmer the sauce for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
- Crush the tomatoes and eggplants occasionally with a wooden spatula, and simmer the sauce well.
- I leave the sauce alone for the first hour.
- After that I stir it up every 15 minutes or so.
- Be careful not to let it burn.
- Simmer until it's reduced to half its original volume.
- The volume is important rather than how long I say to cook it.
- The cooking time will vary depend on how high the cooking heat is and how well the pan you use transmits heat.
- The sauce should be simmered long enough that it becomes quite thick - it should drop with a plop when you scoop some up with a wooden spatula.
- The sauce will become very richly flavored.
- Add the C. ingredients or other dried herbs of your choice to the sauce, and it's done.
- You can eat it right away, but let it rest overnight if possible.
- It will taste even richer and more delicious the next day.
- To cook the pasta the regular way: Put 3 liters of water in a large pot and bring to a boil.
- When it has almost reached a boil, add 2 tablespoons of salt (1% salt).
- The amount of salt you add to the pasta water is important since it decides the flavor of the finished dish, so please measure it out properly.
- Put the pasta in the hot water, and cook it for 30 seconds to a minute less than indicated on the package.
- Cook the pasta over low heat.
- Put the cooked and drained pasta in the frying pan with the sauce.
- (For every 100 g of pasta, use 200 ml of sauce.)
- Just before the pasta is cooked, add about 30 to 40 ml of the pasta water to the sauce.
- (Keep the heat under the sauce very low so that it doesn't reduce.)
- I added some grilled eggplant to the sauce here.
- When you are adding things to the sauce, put them in at this stage.
- (Personally I prefer a simple pasta with the sauce only.)
- Add the cooked and drained pasta in Step 21 or Step 22, and raise the heat under the frying pan to low-medium.
- Mix to coat the pasta with the sauce.
- Transfer the pasta to a serving plate and enjoy.
- Grate on some Parmesan cheese to taste.
- The caramelized onions and grilled eggplant add depth to the sauce.
- You can barely tell that there are eggplants in the sauce.
- You may think that there's a lot of work involved in prepping the ingredients for this sauce, but there actually isn't.
- You can make a large batch and freeze it.
- The sauce can be used in many ways, not just with pasta.
- With just a little effort you can make a delicious Bolognese.
- Please give it a try...
- Addendum about the grilled eggplant: Soak the eggplant in water to remove any bitterness.
- Put some garlic oil on a grill pan, and put on the eggplant.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- When the eggplant has grill marks, brush the surface with more garlic oil and turn over.
- Salt and pepper the other side and continue grilling.
- is a tomato-curry flavored Bolognese sauce.
- Please take a look at that too.
- There's a carrot hater in our family so I didn't add any this time, but I do when I serve this to guests.
- The carrot is a must really.
ground beef, onions, eggplants, celery, garlic, olive oil, garlic, red wine, tomatoes, water, cubes, bay leaf, salt, pepper, nutmeg, oregano
Taken from cookpad.com/us/recipes/157430-authentic-bolognese-sauce (may not work)