"REAL" Italian Bolognese Sauce

Classic Chef's Note:

After traveling throughout Italy, savoring the fine tastes of Bolognese from the many different regions, I decided to formulate my own. Try it, you'll love it.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 40 mins
• Prep Time: 40 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1/4 lb bacon
• 1 medium onion (finely chopped)
• 1 stalk celery (finely chopped)
• 1 large carrot (finely chopped)
• 1 (2 teaspoon) jar garlic or 4 cloves garlic (minced)
• 4 tablespoons butter or 4 tablespoons margarine
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1/2-3/4 lb ground pork
• 1 (8 ounce) can beef consomme
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 (28 ounce) can s&w italian style crushed tomatoes (or other)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 -1 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup milk (I use 2%)
• 1 lb small penne pasta

Directions:

1. In a Dutch Oven or Medium Size Pot, heat butter and olive oil over medium heat until butter begins to froth.
2. Add onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and bacon.
3. Cook until onions are translucent (about 8 to 10 minutes).
4. Remove bacon and remove fat.
5. Chop lean portions of bacon in small pieces and return to pot.
6. Add Ground beef and ground Pork, and cook until meat loses red, raw color.
7. Raise heat and add wine and consomme.
8. Cook sauce until wine and consomme are mostly evaporated.
9. Turn heat down to simmer and add oregano, salt, pepper, sage, red pepper flakes, and nutmeg.
10. Let cook for approximately 20 minutes.
11. Add crushed tomatoes and bring heat to a boil.
12. Once the mixture comes to a boil, return to simmer.
13. Let sauce simmer (very slowly) partially covered for about 2 to 4 hours (the longer the better), stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
14. About 5 to 10 minutes before serving, add milk.
15. Sauce can now be added to cooked Penne Pasta, Spaghetti or many other Pastas to your liking.
16. Remaining sauce may be frozen for up to two months for future use.

Reviews

[Magpie63]

Delicious recipe! The bacon didn't quite work the way it was described -- the fat didn't cook off with the vegetables, so I fried the bacon separately, chopped it, and added it back in. I also added half a can of tomato paste to make it just a little more tomato-y. Quite smoky-tasting -- will try pancetta next time -- but once I added the homemade fettucine and grated parmesan, this was heavenly!

[Wee Nell]

Thanks Chef for your endorsement that garlic belongs in Bolognese. I've been mortified to read in the British press recently that Antonio Carluccio dismisses all Bolognese recipes containing garlic and herbs as inauthentic and invented for the UK market! That said, this recipe is pretty close to the one I've evolved over many years. An ex-boyfriend's Italian mother from the North of Italy used chopped Italian sausage along with the ground beef, this added some chilli heat and also a hint of fennel to the sauce so I was intrigued see chilli flakes featuring here too. I too use nutmeg but for nostalgia! I sometimes substitute freshly ground fennel seeds. I also find cooking slowly in the oven gives the sauce a dark mahogany colour and a richness that cooking on the hob sometimes misses. It's the Maillard reaction I believe!

[Kim8236]

We made this tonight! It was perfecto:) Loved it! We used ribbon pasta! It works better to me with the sauce consistency. This will be my *bolognese" from now on! *****