Spaghetti Bolognese

When I say I want spaghetti I mean a real bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese.  This dish is my comfort food.  I have been eating this ever since I was a little kid.  My dad cooked this sauce for my mom on their first date ? that is how good this is.

I really think it is hard to find a good Spaghetti Bolognese out on the town.  Usually it never contains the balance between tomatoes, meat and spices.  This sauce is a meat sauce with tomato, it is not a tomato sauce with meat.  

Don?t get me wrong, there are so many variations of the Bolognese Sauce; everyone probably has some kind of recipe with a twist.  But the classic sauce as set forth in the archives of the Bologna chapter of the ?L?Accademia Italiana della Cucina? is made with a mixture of minced or ground meats, tomatoes, tomato paste and milk or cream.

When I make this I usually make this on a Sunday in a large pot and have it for the week. This sauce gets better the longer you cook it.  Minimum is 1 1/2 hours but it gets better at 3 hours and the sauce is even better the day after you cook it.

There are many variations you can do to this recipe. Sometimes I add sausage to it and even jalapeno peppers to give it a little kick.  You can use turkey instead of meat; add mushrooms or other vegetables too. But the recipe below is always the same for the base. 

Yields: 4-6 people | Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

 2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion ? chopped

1 large carrot chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

1 parsnip

3 garlic cloves (minced)

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp paprika

2 bay leaves

1/2 lbs lean ground beef

1/2 lbs ground pork or veal

1 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup milk or cream

14 oz can tomatoes ? chopped without the juice

1 cup beef broth

3 tbsp tomato paste

For Serving:

1 lbs Spaghetti

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a 12?noncorrosive skillet over medium heat.

Chop all the vegetable to your desired size, I prefer them small cubed.  Add vegetables (onion, carrots, celery, parsnip, and garlic) and sauté for at least 10 minutes until all vegetables are sweating. 

Add all spices (nutmeg, salt, pepper, basil, thyme, allspice, paprika, bay leaves.  Cook for 2 minutes.

Add all the meat, breaking up meat into fine pieces, just until meat loses its raw color, about 6 minutes.  Do NOT brown meat.

Stir in wine. Cook until wine is evaporated, 4 – 6 minutes.  Stir in milk and reduce heat to medium and cook until meat is evaporated, about 3 – 4 minutes.

Press tomatoes and their liquid through a sieve into a bowl. Discard seeds.  Stir sieved tomatoes, beef broth, tomato paste into meat mixture.

Heat to boiling, and then reduce heat to low.  Simmer uncovered, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid is evaporated and the sauce is thick, about 1 1/2 hours.  Remove and discard bay leafs.

Taste for more of any of the spices, especially salt. 

Just before serving time cook spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water just until al dente by following the instructions on the packaging. 

Ladle meat sauce over spaghetti in a bowl and sprinkle with cheese.

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