Prepare Homestyle Spaghetti With Bolognese Sauce

Bolognese sauce, referred to as ragu alla Bolognese in Italian, is a meat-based pasta sauce. The French name for Bolognese sauce is sauce Bolognese. This sauce is so good that two nations wanted to lay claim on it.

Why? Bolognese sauce is special in several ways. For one reason, it calls for very little tomato sauce. For another, because red wine tints food and Bolognese recipes lean toward the darker meat varieties, white wine is always used instead of red wine. When making spaghetti Bolognese-style, it's also important to add carrots and celery-vegetables that are not normally added to spaghetti sauce.

While milk or half and half can be added to many Bolognese recipes-depending on the area of Bologna, Italy, where the sauce originated-some Bolognese sauces do not have milk or cream. An important aspect to making Bolognese sauce is to add the wine before the tomato sauce has been added, which will allow the meat to become saturated with the wine as the alcohol content burns off. Some people also add butter in the final stage of cooking to offer a creamy texture to the sauce.

Cooking Bolognese sauce for a long time helps to seal the flavors into the meat, but, if the sauce is simmered for too long, it can become too dry.

Bolognese Sauce
Ingredients You Will Need:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 cup carrots, thinly sliced
1 cup celery, thinly sliced
1 to 2 pounds ground hamburger
Salt and white pepper
½ cup white wine
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 15-ounce can chicken broth (or substitute with beef broth)
½ cup milk, half and half or 3 tablespoons butter (optional)
1 tablespoon oregano (optional)
1 tablespoon crushed garlic (optional)
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Pasta

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the sliced onions, carrots and celery, and cook until crisp tender. Add the hamburger, and crumble it as it browns. Salt and pepper to taste. When the meat is nice and brown, add the wine, and slowly bring the mixture to a slow boil. Heat the meat for about 10 minutes or until the alcohol content has burned off. Mix the tomato sauce and paste in a bowl with the chicken broth, and pour it over the meat. Bring the skillet to a slow boil again, and then turn the heat down and simmer for about 1 hour.

If you choose to add milk or butter or the optional spices, add them in the last 20 minutes of cooking. Grate the cheese, and add it to the meat. Serve this pasta Italian-style by adding the pasta to the meat rather than pouring the meat over the pasta, and pair the dish with garlic French bread and a glass of wine.

Note: Some authentic Italian cooks will cook this sauce for several hours, but it is a sauce that requires attention. If the Bolognese sauce dries out too much, it's hard to get the exact taste again by adding ingredients later in the cooking stage.