Bolognese Sauce

I learned this recipe from a real live Italian, who wasn't from Bologna but she is from Naples and is an amazing cook! Thanks Maria!

We didn't use the usual ground beef, which is what traditional Bolognese sauce is made of. But due to dietary concerns we decided to use ground bison/buffalo meat, which can actually be found at any grocery store these days! Who knew?!

We ate this sauce with the most amazing homemade fettucine, which we bought in Little Italy. And obviously, traditionally, bolognese is eaten with spaghetti, but I think it would also taste good with rigatoni. Hope you love it as much as I did!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground meat (bison or beef, whatever you prefer)

1/4 cup finely diced white onion

1/4 cup finely diced carrots

1/4 cup finely diced celery

1 large can of your favorite tomato sauce (We used an Italian brand called Pomi; it is in a white box and has a picture of a tomato on it... yeh imagine that! But you can use whatever tomato sauce you like)

2 tbsp E.V.O.O, divided

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook:

Heat 1tbsp E.V.O.O in a deep pot on low heat.

Add the canned tomato sauce and let it simmer on low heat while preparing the meat.

In a skillet, heat the rest of the E.V.O.O. on medium heat.

Add the onions, carrot and celery and saute until onions are transparent. Should take approx. 10-12 minutes.

Add the ground meat and break it up so that the chunks don't remain large.

Once the meat is cooked through, add salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the tomato sauce with the meat.

Ladle over your choice of pasta and sprinkle with some grated parmesan.

ENJOY!

This is one of the simplest yet most delicious sauces I have ever had. And believe it or not, it doesn't have garlic in it!!!! I know! Crazy! But apparently a lot of Italian cooks and chefs claim that onions and garlic should never be mixed in a recipe because they are too different and they overpower the natural flavors of the other ingredients! I don't know how much I agree with that as you can tell from my repertoire of Indian recipes, where the basis for most is onions, ginger and garlic. But for this recipe, the lack of garlic definitely went unnoticed. YUM!