Spaghetti Bolognese & Spinach Salad

Let it be known: I love Spaghetti Bolognese. I think it’s one of my top 5 favorite foods of all time. I’ve made spaghetti with a regular sauce before, but I’ve never searched out a bolognese recipe, until now. Richard & Betsey were over for one last hurrah on Friday before that baby of theirs decides to come and we decided to make said ‘Spag Bol’ (as the Aussies call it, according to Em.) What’s the difference between bolognese & meat sauce you ask? From what I understand (and correct me if I’m wrong) is that Bolognese simmers for several hours and is typically made with wine. Also, Italian sauces are composed of little or no tomato sauce.  I love this dish so much, I really didn’t care how long it would take. I just wanted to find an authentic recipe. So I searched & searched & searched and finally found one that looked pretty delish (I had to convert it from grams to ounces- I took that as a good sign. LOL!) and so we gave it a whirl. I made some changes (like omitting chicken livers-egads!) as well as a few other items, but this recipe was really good. While this isn’t a difficult recipe by any means, it really should simmer for a few hours. You could probably put it in a crock pot on low once you get to that point in the directions. Anyway, it’s delish- give it a try next time you’ve got a hankering for some Spag Bol! It’s a great recipe to prepare ahead of time.

Spaghetti Bolognese
4 oz lean ground pork
12 oz lean ground beef
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 C chopped carrot
1/2 C chopped celery
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 C red or white wine (we used a dry sherry)
2 C beef stock
1 3/4 lb of peeled tomato’s, quartered*
2 Tbsp tomato paste**
3 Tbsp. cream (optional)
2 bay leaves
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 pkg cooked spaghetti

Directions:
Sauté the onion, carrot and celery over low heat in oil (or oil and butter); sweat the vegetables until they colour slightly; add the garlic, stiring well with a wooden spoon. Add the ground meat and cook over low heat, breaking the meat up with a fork. Season with salt and pepper; deglaze with the white or red wine; increase the heat and cook until the wine has evaporated. Add the quartered tomatoes and the tomato paste, thinned with a little tomato juice, water or broth. Season with the bay leaves and combine well. Increase the heat to medium so that the sauce boils gently; cover the pot and let simmer for two to three hours, adding more broth as necessary. If you are using cream, add it an hour before the end of the cooking time; remove the bay leaves before serving. The cream will tend to cut some of the tomato’s acidity.

*To peel the tomato’s, we boiled them for about 3-5 minutes and then put them in cold water. The skins will peel off easily this way.

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