Spaghetti Bolognese

I can't believe that of all these years I have been making spaghetti and meat sauce, I never knew what goes into a spaghetti bolognese recipe. Actually, I did not realize that it is mainly a meat sauce, and a true recipe includes only a small amount of tomato sauce. I absolutely love this sauce and could probably eat it every day. You can always change it up a bit by using different types of ground meat and spices. Here's how I do it:





Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
4oz diced bacon or pancetta
3/4 cup finely diced carrots
3/4 cup finely diced celery
1/2 of a medium onion finely chopped
1 cup beef stock
1 clove mince garlic
1 cup red wine
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 can crushed tomato, seasoned if you like
1 to 2 tbs TJ's Red Pepper Spread (adds a nice sweet sorta flavor)


garlic seasoning
pepper

1. In olive oil, cook the pancetta, onions, carrot, celery, and garlic until soft.  If using bacon, cook separately until almost crispy then drain fat and add to veg. pan with olive oil.
2. Add the ground meat, pepper, garlic seasoning and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add beef stock and red wine and cook until some water has evaporated.
4. Stir in tomato paste, ketchup, can crushed tomato
5. Let simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

A traditional bolognese dish adds a bit of cream or milk to the sauce in the end, but I left it out and it's good either way!