After Work Bolognese

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

Bolognese sauce is a meat based sauce for pasta originating in Bologna, Italy. Bolognese sauce is sometimes taken to be a tomato sauce, but many recipes have only a small amount of tomato concentrate.

The sauce dates back at least to the 15th century. Tomato was added after the discovery of the New World. The traditional recipe, registered in 1982 by the Bolognese delegation of Accademia Italiana Della Cucina, confines the ingredients to beef, pancetta, onions, tomato paste, meat broth, white wine, and milk or cream. However, different recipes, even in the Bolognese tradition, make use of chopped pork or pork sausage, white chicken, rabbit, or goose liver may be added along with the beef or veal for special occasions, and today many use both butter and olive oil for cooking the soffritto of small amounts of celery, carrot and onion. Prosciutto, mortadella, or porcini fresh mushrooms when in season may be added to the ragu to further enrich the sauce. Milk is frequently used in the early stages of cooking to render the meat flavours more delicate but cream is very rare in the everyday recipe and only a very little would be used. According to Marcella Hazan in "The Classic Italian Cookbook", the longer Ragu alla Bolognese cooks the better, a 5 or 6 hour simmer is not unusual.

The people of Bologna traditionally serve their famous ragu with freshly made tagliatelle (tagliatelle alla bolognese) and their traditionally green lasagne. It should be noted that the Italians do not pair Ragu alla Bolognese with the pasta shape spaghetti. Wider shaped pasta are thought to hold up to the heavy sauce better.

On Sunday, 17 January 2010, 450 chefs in Italian restaurants in 50 countries cooked bolognese to an authentic recipe in order to promote Tagliatelle al ragu alla bolognese. International newspapers did not always reference the Accademia Italiana della Cucina recipe and usually published stock photographs of Spaghetti alla Bolognese. In Italy, the pasta is stirred into the sauce to gather flavour rather than sat atop of the dish.

By http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolognese_sauce

After Work Bolognese

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground pork

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons garlic, minced

1 tablespoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon crushed red peppers

1/4 cup of chicken broth

2 (14.5 oz) cans Italian diced tomatoes

salt and pepper, to taste

1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni pasta

1 tablespoon basil

Grated Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add ground pork, breaking meat up as it cooks, cook until no longer pink. Add garlic, oregano and crushed red peppers. Stir. Cook about one minute. Pour chicken broth into skillet. Add diced tomatoes, salt and pepper. Stir. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium low heat, simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Add basil. Stir. Cook pasta according to package directions. Once pasta has cooked, drain well. Add pasta to meat sauce. Stir well. Just before serving, garnish with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Note: Add more chicken broth if mixture is too thick.