Pork Bolognese

Bolognese is a meat sauce with pasta originating from Bologna, Italy. The traditional recipe consists of beef, pancetta, celery, carrots, onion, red wine, tomato paste, meat broth, and optionally milk. The sauce is traditionally eaten with tataglia, a broad flat pasta.*

Nowadays, there are so many variations from the traditional recipe. Because this was my first time making Bolognese (and I had limited ingredients in the house), I decided to pick a slightly simpler recipe and take a few time-saving shortcuts.

Verdict? the final meat sauce that turned out was definitely tasty, but I think there are things I would do differently next time to make it even better.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 container of mirepoix from Trader Joe’s
• 1 pound ground pork (or meatloaf mix - 1:1:1 ratio of ground pork, veal, beef)

• 1 cup milk

• 1 cup dry red or white wine
• a 28-to-32 ounce can whole tomatoes including juice

Mirepoix is a combination of finely chopped onions, celery, and carrots (typically a 2:1:1 ratio by weight) that is used as a base for many sauces, stocks, and soups. In many cases, it is sauteed with butter or oil. You can make your own by chopping onions, celery, and carrots (1 small onion, 1 rib of celery, and 1 carrot finely chopped). In this case, I purchased a container from Trader Joe's. For me, it saved a significant amount of time and there's no mess in the kitchen to clean up afterward.

Step 1: Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat and add the butter and the oil. Once hot, add the mirepoix and sautee the mixture for about 2 minute.

Step 2: Add the meat and cook until it is no longer pink (2 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Step 3: Add milk until most of it is evaporated

Step 4: Add wine until most of it is evaporated

Step 5: In a blender or food processor, blend the canned tomatoes (with the liquid) until blended.
Step 6: Add the tomato mixture into the pot and cook for at least one hour (simmer) if not longer.
Step 7: season with salt and pepper

Serve!

I apologize that I don't have as many pictures as I would have liked. For some reason, I got caught up in cooking and forgot to take pictures at the end when adding the milk and wine.

I will likely try this again with a more traditional recipe that includes beef, veal, and pancetta.

I think this dish was good, but there were definitely things that I could have done to make it even better. The sauce was a bit sweet (from the red wine). I think adding the pancetta will help cut the sweetness and provide a salty, smoky balance to the sauce. Also, cooking it longer and adding tomato paste would also contribute to the overall depth of the dish. I definitely plan on cooking it longer next time. I only simmered it for about an hour, and many folks say that it doesn't hurt to cook it for 5-6 hours! The longer the better.

Anyhow, if you've made this far, thanks for joining me on my never-ending kitchen experiments. :)

*source of information - http://en.wikipedia.org/