Bolognese Sauce

Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 1 bottle red wine (chianti is best but any cheap red wine is ok.)
• 1 1/2 kg topside beef mince
• 3 stalks celery, diced (no leaves)
• 4 medium carrots, diced
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano or 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon dried thyme or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley or 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried basil or 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
• 1 teaspoon marjoram or 2 teaspoons fresh marjoram, chopped
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1/4 cup dry-roasted pine nuts
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 250 g button mushrooms (brown button mushrooms are better)
• 5 fresh tomatoes, skinned and coarsely chopped or 1 (400 g) can of skinless tomatoes
• 1 (150 g) can tomato paste
• 1/2 bottle ketchup (heinz is best)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper

Recipe

• 1 using your hands, mix egg and minced beef.
• 2 heat pan and fry garlic and onion until soft and fragrant, add beef.
• 3 stir constantly until beef changes colour.
• 4 add oregano, thyme, parsley, basil, marjoram, bayleaves.
• 5 stir through.
• 6 add tomato paste and fresh tomatoes, with 1/3 of the wine.
• 7 mix thoroughly.
• 8 season with salt and pepper.
• 9 do not add water at all.
• 10 let boil over very low heat until mixture thickens, stirring ocassionally.
• 11 add carrots and celery, and half of the remaining wine.
• 12 let boil (very low heat) until liquid is absorbed.
• 13 stir occasionally.
• 14 add the rest of the wine, tomato sauce, pinenuts and mushrooms.
• 15 stir until sauce thickens.
• 16 serving method: boil water until it bubbles, add pasta, 1 tbsp of salt and 2 tbsp of olive oil.
• 17 cook for exactly 8 minutes for al-dente texture.
• 18 drain pasta.
• 19 make sure it's really drained of water.
• 20 in a pan, heat up pasta sauce (1 serving) and toss pasta in.
• 21 stir quickly (1 minute) and pour onto plate.
• 22 sprinkle with grated mozzarella and parmesan, and a bit of parsley.
• 23 note: sauce can be stored in small containers in the freezer to be used when needed.
• 24 make sure container is microwaveable, clean and dry.
• 25 the sauce keeps for 12 months in the freezer.