Most North Americans, Italians and Italian Americans grew up with a family spaghetti or Bolognese recipe, usually from their grandmother. When I was a kid, we had my grandmother’s spaghetti twice a month, and it was always a hit. Growing up with 6 kids, it was not always easy for my mom to feed the whole family. But a big batch of my grandmother’s spaghetti would feed the entire family for 2 days. This Bolognese recipe takes time, but is generally pretty easy to make.

What separates my Bolognese recipe from others is my addition of cloves and nutmeg, which is present in some traditional recipes you will find online, but it gives this recipe a distinct nutty flavour, which I personally enjoy. Feel free to not add these if you wish. As with most Bolognese recipes this a meat heavy ragu style sauce. I will be using both veal and beef, but if you cannot find veal, beef alone will do.

For this recipe, avoid using onion or garlic powder, it doesn’t give you the best results, and also does not give you any of the health benefits you would get from fresh garlic and onion. Beef will be majority of the meat used, but if you can find veal use some veal as well. You should have 2 parts beef for every 1 part of veal. For the tomato sauce, you can either buy grocery store crushed and strained tomato passata such a Mutti or other high quality Italian tomato passata or make it yourself, but store bought sauce will be fine. I also like to add 1 crushed tomato just to add a bit of texture to the sauce. The wine is very important, and there are many good options, but my favourite is Tuscan wine, more precisely from the Chianti region.

Bon appétit!

Bolognese

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• Author: kellian.debargis@gmail.com

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Description

Spaghetti Bolognese or Ragu Bolognese is an instant classic. Delicious pasta combined with an amazing meat tomato sauce. It is both delicious and perfect for a date night, or a cozy night in.

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Ingredients

Beef

Veal

Tomato Passata (Mutti)

1 Crushed Tomato

Olive Oil

White or Yellow Onion

Garlic

Milk

Red Wine

Salt & Pepper

Ground Cloves

Ground Nutmeg

Bay Leaf

Thyme

Parmesan

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Instructions

1. Heat up a deep pan, low to medium heat. Add onions and pinch of salt and slowly cook/sweat the onions until translucent, then add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes until you smell the garlic.

2. Add ground beef and veal, gently season with salt and pepper. Make sure to stir frequently. This might take some time to cook. Feel free to slightly increase the heat of the pan until the meat is cooked.

3. Once the meat is well cooked, add 200-300 ml of wine or 1 cup. Wait a few minutes for wine to cook and reduce and then add same amount of milk and reduce.

4. Lower heat to low and add crushed tomato and tomato passata, salt, pepper, 2 bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme, ½ teaspoon of cloves and ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg. Mix together with meat and cover with lid. Let the sauce cook for at least an hour and taste frequently to adjust for taste with salt.

5. In a separate pot, cook spaghetti or other long pasta in a pot with water and salt. Follow instructions on package.

6. Combine pasta with sauce and plate. Add Parmigiano Reggiano as a garnish on top of pasta.

Notes

• To make this recipe gluten free, simply replace the gluten pasta with gluten free pasta, very simple.
• Feel free to add more or less meat, bolognese is made to be versatile. Make it as you like it!
• You can omit the veal, or replace it with beef.
• For the soffrito (onion, garlic, carrot, celery) you can omit the carrot and/or celery