For years, I was convinced that Bolognese just meant throwing some ground beef into a marinara sauce. I blame this on many of the big “family style” Italian restaurants that seem to be spreading this myth. The traditional Bolognese sauce consists of meat braised in wine and tomatoes. It is not a tomato based sauce. Instead, it is a meat sauce with some tomatoes. It’s a fine line, I know, but it makes all the difference, trust me.

This is one of my absolute favorite meals to make. It’s easy, it cooks for a long time, so it makes the house smell great, and people really like it. Indeed, it’s good enough to serve to company, but it’s cheap and easy enough to take left overs to work, or just eat all week for dinner.

Beef Bolognese

Ingredients:

• 1 pound stew beef, cut into large chunks
• 1 large spanish onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, diced very small
• 1 large celery stalk, diced very small
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon of dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon of dried basil
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• 1/2 tablespoon of dried parsley, optional
• 1 cup of red wine
• 1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pound of your favorite pasta
• parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Cover the bottom of a large oven safe skillet (with a cover), or a dutch oven with olive oil over medium high heat.
• Salt and pepper the meat and brown in the oil on all sides, proceeding in batches and adding more oil if necessary. Set the meat aside.
• Add more oil to the pan if it is dry. Add the onion, celery, carrot, and garlic into the dutch oven and saute until the vegetables soften and the onions become translucent, approximately 10 minutes.
• Add the herbs and season with salt and pepper. Saute for 2 minutes.
• Add the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the wine reduce by half. Depending on the size of the pan, more wine might be necessary. Use your discretion — you won’t over do it, trust me.
• Add the canned tomatoes, stir, cover, and place into the oven.
• Check on the sauce after about 2 hours. It is ready if the meat falls apart when pressed with the back of a spoon.
• Prepare the pasta per the packaging instructions.
• Break up the meat and tomatoes.
• Add the cream and stir into the sauce over medium low heat. If the sauce needs to be loosened, add a spoonful of pasta water to the mixture.
• Mix pasta and sauce together off the heat and garnish with grated parmesan cheese.