Bolognese

With yesterday's posting detailing my journey to my perfect sauce, I thought I would take today to bring you into my world of Bolognese. First off, I have to really thank Geoffrey Zakarian. It was after I saw his recipe on "Best Thing I Ever Made" that inspired me to this recipe. Let's get right into the recipe for my Bolognese:

Ingredients:
1/4 lb pancetta
4 garlic cloves
1/2 cup dried porcini mushroom
1 sweet onion (medium size)
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 lb ground veal
1 lb ground beef (I use sirloin but the choice is yours)
1 C red wine (I use pinot noir)
2 parmigiano cheese rinds
1/2 C grated parmigiano
1 tsp dried thyme
salt / pepper
2 - 28 oz cans La Valle San Marzano tomatoes
butter and olive oil

soak the porcini mushrooms in cold water (enough to cover the mushrooms)

here I use two dutch ovens to prepare the sauce, one for the meats and one for the tomato sauce ... one dutch oven is smaller (roughly 4 quarts) than the other (roughly 6 quarts) let's talk about the meat first as that needs to be prepared first:

1.) in the smaller dutch oven melt a Tbsp of butter and some olive oil over medium to medium high heat ... once the butter has melted add the ground meats ... add the thyme, 1/2 T salt and 1 tsp of pepper to the meat and let brown ... be sure to break up the meat

2.) while the meat is cooking melt another Tbsp of butter and some olive oil in the second dutch oven over medium to medium high heat ... once melted add the diced pancetta to the pot and render out that fatty goodness (i remove the bits before they become too crispy) ... while the pancetta is cooking chop the onion, carrot, and celery (rough chop is fine as it'll all be pureed) ... with the pancetta removed add the onion, carrot, and celery and let those cook down with the onions becoming translucent (also a good pinch of salt and pepper) ... after about 5-7 minutes add the porcini mushrooms, the garlic, and the mushroom broth and let the water completely reduce down ... once the water has reduced down add the red wine and, again, let the liquid reduce down fully ... add the pancetta back to the vegetables as well as the tomatoes (as was the case with my tomato sauce and meatballs, strain the water from the cans sot he sauce won't be as thin) ... DO NOT ADD THE MEAT YET

3.) puree the vegetable and tomato mixture to a smooth consistency (I do this as Mama Zuri would prefer it best .... but I like it this way too) ... with the same portion pureed, add the ground meats and cheese rinds, reduce the heat to medium low to low, and let simmer for two hours

ENJOY!

Below are some dishes I've made using the meat sauce, including my Bolognese & Pesto Lasagna!