Kid Tested Mother Approved

Friday night was a night out for us, wee went to a very interesting joint in Silver Spring. There were Pirates....that's all I'll say at this point...but we did have fun.

Today, Lady B, Hubby and Baby B came over for lunch. I ventured to the fourth recipe I'm trying from 1080 Recipes. Tasty! This was lunch and I am stuffed to the point of NO DINNER NEEDED.

Espaguetis con salsa Bolonesa
Spaghetti Bolognese


Starts with some bacon, fried to nearly crispy.

And one finely diced onion.

Add one stalk of finely diced celery.

And one or two (I used two) finely diced carrots.

Add some ground beef, stir to incorporate. Cook for ten minutes.

Add some white wine and tomato puree. I had two tomatoes I chopped up and tossed those in. Cook for ten minutes.

Here's the sauce, just about ready. One addition, a cup of milk or cream. Once added, cook for another 10 minutes.

Dressed and served. So much rich flavor.

This is the second version of Bolognese I've made. It's very familiar to the other recipe, with a few small changes. White wine instead of Red wine. Bacon instead of sausage. (KEY!) Light cream instead of milk. Looking at the two recipes, I think only one of these changes actually makes any difference. The lovely bacon! The hint of smokiness is very nice addition to this very rich sauce.

Very Nice. Baby B even tried some and enjoyed it...until she found it fun to throw her "pick up pasta" on the floor! Cutie!



Ingredient list for this slightly (very slightly) altered recipe:

1 TB olive oil
1/4 lb bacon, finely diced
1 lb ground beef (90% lean)
1 large onion, finely diced
1-2 carrots (depending on size), finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
pinch ground cloves
6 TB tomato sauce
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely diced
3 TB white wine
1 cup light cream (I had milk and heavy cream, I used 1/2 of each)
1 cup grated Parmigiana Reggiano
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the bacon and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes. Add the carrots, onions, celery, beef and ground cloves, season with salt and pepper. Stirring frequently, cook for 10 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, sauce and white wine. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cream and simmer for at least another 10 minutes.

I let the sauce sit for two hours at this point, then when preparing to serve, let it sit for another 10 minutes. Mmm, flavor-melding!

Toss pasta with 1/2 the sauce, reserve the remaining sauce for the table. Serve with the Parm.