Spaghetti, Sauce Bolognese: Salsa Bolognesa

On the theme of "normal" meals. Spaghetti. With Bolognese Sauce. A sprinkling of Parmesan on top. Well, hey, it's summer, somewhat warm out (33C ish [91F]), and the cooking is lazy.

With pasta from Peck (Italian).

This is not a super-traditional recipe for Bolognese; but it's what I actually did. It's really just a tasty meat sauce and not representative of the region of Bolgna in Italy.

Sauce Bolognese: Salsa Bolognesa

Serves: 20

Ingredients

• oil, olive, virgin
  
• 1 kg beef & pork (mixed 2/3, 1/3), ground [2#]
• 1 onion, julienne [diced]
• 3 T cream
  
• 250 ml red wine [8 oz]
• 2 L tomato sauce [2 qt]
• 1 L ham stock [1 qt] (or beef stock)
  
• 2 T parsely, fresh
  
• 1 T basil, dried
  
• 1 T oregano, dried
  
• 1 T salt
• 2 t pepper
• 3 chile peppers (split & de-seeded)
  

Procedure

1. Oil into a (large) pot (dutch oven style)
   
2. Brown the meat well (don't just make it opaque, get it good and coloured)
3. Remove meat, leave the oils/fats in the pan
   
4. Brown the onions (could take 15 minutes)
5. Return the meat
6. Add the cream, stir
   
7. Add red wine, tomato sauce & stock
8. Add parsley, basil & oregano, salt & pepper and chile peppers
9. Crank the heat up to a boil - then...
   
10. Cut back to a simmer
• Simmer for an hour (uncovered)
11. Taste the sauce & tweak the salt, pepper basil & oregano
12. Remove the chile peppers (if you can find them)
    

Notes

1. The recipe makes a load of sauce; it freezes very well
   
2. The chile peppers don't make this sauce very "hot" but they do add a subtle touch that enhances the other flavours in the dish
3. A little bit of cream smooths the acids of the wine and the tomato
   
4. Towards the end of the simmering it will splash sauce all over the place while it bubbles. You can turnit down and put a lid on, half covering it, but will in any case will have a mess to clean up later. Live with it.
5. Adjust the salt, pepper & spices towards the end of the simmering; not at the start. You need to let them work their magic on the sauce before tweaking them.
   
6. Make this a day ahead if you can to let the flavours blend