Spaghetti alla Bolognese

This Spaghetti alla Bolognese is one of the most requested meals by my husband.  This is definitely a meal for a hungry man (or woman).  It is hearty and full of delicious flavors and aromas.

When you’re hungry, and I mean really, really hungry, few meals are quite as satisfying as a steaming plate of Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.

The Secret ingredient to this Bolognese Meat Sauce:

The secret ingredient is time.  It take time, and a lot of it for the complex flavors to integrate and develop.  Don’t rush any step.  It’s a labor of love.  It will take at least a good 2-1/2 hours (preferably more) of simmering on low heat.  So, you have time to garb a book you’ve been planning to read or watch a couple of episodes of your favorite show.  Just check in on your sauce every one in a while and give it a good stir.

Steps to a satisfying bolognese meat sauce:

Heat a tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of the oil.  Add the onions, carrot, and celery.

Cook on a low to low-medium heat until the onion, carrot, and celery begins to soften.  We want the veggies to be tender but not dark.

Raise the heat to medium.  Add the ground beef to the pot.

While stirring with a wooden spoon, cook until the beef is no longer pink.

Stir in the salt, pepper, onion powder, celery powder, garlic powder and Herbs de Provence.  In case you were wondering, the Herbs de Provence (or Herbs from Provence) is a blend of herbs.  According to the spice jar, the blend I have includes: rosemary, garlic, lavender, thyme, parsley, tarragon, marjoram, basil, savory, sage, and chervil.

It smells so good already!!

Stir in the cream and cook until the cream mostly evaporates.  This is going to give it such a velvety richness.

Add the wine and cook until the liquid mostly evaporates.  Remember, we are layering flavors here.  I wish you could smell this!

Next, stir in the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and tomato puree.  The tomato puree looks a lot like tomato sauce or pasta sauce.  It is not.  The only ingredient in it is pureed tomatoes.

Stir in 1-1/2 cups of the chicken stock.

Lower the heat to a low-medium and allow the sauce to simmer for the at about 2 hours.  The longer, the better.

The sauce will splatter, so what you can do between stirs is to cover the pot very loosely with non-stick foil.

Check on the sauce periodically and give it a stir.  If during the cooking process, the sauce gets too thick and starts to stick to the bottom, add a little chicken stock.

After the Meat Sauce is finished cooking, skim the fat off the top.

For the pasta and to finish off the dish:

Add a tablespoon of the olive oil to a pot of boiling water.  Add the pasta and boil to the packages direction.

Drain the pasta.  I use my trusty colander to do this.

Stir the pasta into the sauce using a good pair of tongs.

Stir in 1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan Cheese.

Shave some extra Parmigiano-Reggiano when you plate the pasta.  If you only have grated, that’s fine too.  The grated cheese just looks prettier.  I like lots of cheese on mine, thank you.

It looks almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.

Bon Apetito!

Check out some other pasta recipe ideas here.