Bolognese Sauce with Ground Meat

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   Gather the ingredients for the sauce. Mixed ground meat — beef and pork — works best; it makes the sauce moderately rich without being dry. You can use either white or red wine, so long as it's a bottle you'd drink; the alcohol cooks off but the flavor stays. For Bolognese I always use strained tomato pulp (passata), but you can substitute thinned tomato paste, tomato sauce, or fresh tomatoes.

2. Step 2:

   

   Peel the onion and cut it into small dice.

3. Step 3:

   

   Wash the celery stalk and dice it the same size as the onion. Keeping the vegetables uniform helps them cook at the same rate and look neater in the finished sauce.

4. Step 4:

   

   Rinse the carrot well under running water, then peel it and cut it into dice.

5. Step 5:

   

   Heat a pan over medium heat. A heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven is best for this sauce — it holds heat well for a slow simmer and lets everything cook down gently. Add the olive oil, then the vegetables, and cook for a few minutes until softened.

6. Step 6:

   

   Add the ground meat to the vegetables. Break it up well with a spoon, mashing any large clumps.

7. Step 7:

   

   Cook the meat for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until it has completely lost its raw color. Then pour in the wine and stir. Let it cook off — this happens quickly, in just a few minutes. The alcohol evaporates and leaves behind a subtle depth of flavor.

8. Step 8:

   

   Add the strained tomatoes and stir. Add the dried herbs, salt, and pepper, then pour in the water and mix well. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low, and simmer the sauce for about an hour, stirring now and then and checking the consistency. Add a splash more water if it gets too thick.

9. Step 9:

   

   Serve the finished sauce right away over pasta, or use it as a filling for lasagna.