History:
The Meat Sauce, or Ragu alla Bolognese, was not officially written down until 1891! The unification of Italy in the 1860s meant that recipes were now being shared across the “boot” as local cookbooks were spread from the north to the south. Pellegrino Artusi who wrote the recipe down in “The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well” named the sauce after the Bolonga region where he found the iconic dish.
Ingredients:
2 28 oz can tomato sauce
14 oz can of crushed tomatoes
12 oz tomato paste
½ onion diced
5 cloves of garlic diced
1 red pepper
2 carrots shaved
Red wine
Ground beef
Italian mild sausage
Paprika
Garlic Powder
Olive oil
Parsley
Basil
Oregano
Salt and Pepper
Directions:
Evenly chop the onions and garlic (I said 5 cloves, but go for it because honestly, I put 8 in my sauce because I love garlic breath). Slice your red pepper in large chunks (so you can easily take them out of the sauce at the end).
In a sauce pot, add your olive oil, onions, and garlic and make sure to bring them up to heat together to lessen the chance of burning. Add your ground beef (if you’re a meat lover, go to town, add as much meat as you want, if that doesn’t give away that I am 100% not a vegetarian, nothing will). Cook your ground beef down and then add the sausage chopped into whatever size your heart desires. Cook your meat to almost fully cooked and then comes my favorite part… WINE! Pour in that red wine, take a sip, pour more in, and sip again (there is no judgment in my kitchen). Cook off that wine (RIP wine) and then add your carrots (they make it earthy and sweet!).
Pour in your cans of sauce and stir the contents together. Add your first round of spices in: garlic powder (I guess I really love to have garlic breath), salt, pepper, and paprika (had to give my Eastern European heritage a shout out!) Add the red pepper slices (this adds a unique sweet acidity to this multiheritage sauce).
Cook this sauce down (enjoy the Italian aromas of herbs, sausage, and tomato that will fill your home). Lastly, taste and add as many spices as you want to taste (I take that paprika container and GO TO TOWN on my sauce, but I think I may have a paprika addiction... but that’s another blog…). Most importantly toss in those fresh herbs! Let it cook for a few more minutes to incorporate those fresh natural flavors. Take any pasta (we can all agree all forms of pasta are amazing and there is no argument to that… just don’t try to state otherwise). Oh yes, the pasta; toss that into your sauce and enjoy with any cheese (you know my stance on cheese by now.) Enjoy!
Official Statement: Today we have a traditional homemade meat sauce infused with various vegetables and herbs served over pasta.
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