[Basic] Bolognese Sauce (Italian Meat Sauce)

Bolognese Sauce is a meat sauce that originated from Bologna, Italy. Higher meat contents give the sauce more body and deep flavor, and it is mostly used with thick pasta, such as tagliatelle, fettuccine or lasagna, which can handle the strong flavor of the sauce.

The following recipe is for a very basic bolognese sauce. You can build your own bolognese sauce based on the basic recipe by adding celery, herbs or other meats (pork sausage, pancetta... and etc.).


Bolognese Sauce (Italian Meat Sauce)
(Yield: one pint/ Cooking time: 1 hour)

Ingredients:
+ 14.5oz whole tomato can
+ one medium onion
+ one medium carrot (I used several mini carrots)
+ 2 garlic cloves
+ 300g lean ground beef
+ 1/2 cup dry white wine
+ olive oil
+ salt and pepper




Procedures:

1. Peel and crush garlic cloves, and peel and roughly chop onion and carrot. Chop finely in food processor - Please make sure you DON'T puree the mix.


2. In a pot, add 2-3 Tbsp olive oil and sweat finely chopped onion, carrot and garlics without brown color over medium heat.


3. Add ground beef and increase the heat a little bit. Cook until beef is little bit browned. Season with a pinch of salt.


4. Pour 1/2 cup of white wine and deglaze the pot. Scrap the bottom of pan with a wooden spoon and reduce the white wine.


Wine needs to be reduced until you cannot smell any alcohol, and you can see the dry pan bottom.



5. Strain liquid from the tomato can.


6. Add the tomato to the pan and crush the tomato with wooden spoon. Cover the lid and cook in low heat for 30-40 minutes.


7. When the sauce is cooked properly, it should quite thick. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.


8. If you don't use the sauce right away, cool down immediately and store in fridge. You can even freeze the sauce for weeks.