Simple Bolgnese (fast...ish?)

From Recipes From Italy

My husband turned me onto a channel on YouTube which features prominent Italian chefs watching American cooking videos, and critiquing their versions of Italian dishes. Now, fully knowing there is no one way to do anything, I take it all with a grain of salt, but found I learned a few little things to up my bolognese game. Taking the techniques shown, and their critiques of the work done, here is what I made this past Tuesday--I loved how it turned out!

INGREDIENTS

• 4 slices of smoked bacon of choice (mine was a cherrywood thick cut)
• 1 lb ground beef (we had 3/4lb of ground Wagyu, I would have liked more, so say 1 lb)
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 large carrot
• 1/2 a medium-large white onion
• 1 16oz can crushed tomatoes with basil
• 1/2 cup - 1 cup red wine
• Fresh thyme
• Olive oil
• pasta of choice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Have two pans at the ready--a deep sautee pan and a large sauce pan.
2. Cut the bacon into 1/4" chunks and put in sautee pan to start rendering yummy fats
3. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in the large sauce pan over low heat. While it is heating, cut celery, carrot, and onion into big chunks and toss into a food processor (I have a little Ninja that works great for me) and fine chop. Add this to the olive oil in the pan and sweat the vegetables over a low heat until they release a fair amount of moisture.
4. While the veg sweats, back over in the sautee pan, add your ground beef and brown over medium heat. You want some crispy brown bits in there, so don't be afraid to bump the heat to get the Maillard reaction you want here.
5. Once beef is browned and veg has sweat it out, add veg to the sautee pan with the bacon and beef, stir to combine. Add in the can of tomatoes and the red wine (I briefly swish the wine around inside the tomato can to get the last of the juices outta there), stir to combine. 
6. Reduce over low heat as long as you can stand it. I only had 45 minutes to do it, since it was late at night and we needed to eat, but 2 hours is better. I add the fresh herbs about a half hour before the end of the cook, because personally I like it to retain some of its "greenness" in the flavor profile. If you don't care about such things, add it when you add the tomato sauce.
7. While sauce is reducing, add water to the sauce pan you used for the veg and cook your pasta. A good spaghetti noodle is good in a pinch, but a wider noodle is preferred if you have it.
8. Drain pasta and spoon a bunch of the bolognese in with the pasta and stir to let the pasta soak up and "finish" in the sauce.
9. Tong a nest of pasta into a bowl, top with sauce. Add grated parmesan cheese on top if you like (this is blasphemy to some Italian chefs, but hell...we're Americans and we like our cheese).

This made four servings. We ate two that night and then portioned the other two into lunch servings in handy glass containers in the fridge!