Pasta Bolognese

Easy Weeknight Bolognese Sauce

~ Marlee And Christie ~ 2 Comments

Bolognese

If you didn’t already know, we love pasta. We could cook and eat pasta until we’re blue in the face, and if you didn’t guess, one of our favorite sauces is bolognese.

Most bolognese recipes take a lot of time and when you’re in a pinch the last thing you want to do is wait 3+ hours for dinner and a sauce. What’s great about our Easy Weeknight Bolognese is that you get the wonderful flavors of a classic bolognese in half the time!

And most of the ingredients are things you already have in your fridge at home. And if you’re super lazy, and don’t want to chop, you can buy those prepackaged mirepoix (meer-quaw) mixes, that include diced onion, celery, and carrots!

Now, don’t be alarmed by the amount of ingredients, those are what make this recipe great and delicious!

Easy Weeknight Bolognese

Easy Weeknight Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup Chopped Onions
  • 1 Cup Chopped Carrots
  • 1/2 Cup Chopped Celery
  • 1 Pound Ground Beef (Or any other meat)
  • 1 Jar Your Favorite Canned Marinara Sauce (24oz)
  • 1 Cup Red Wine
  • 1/2 Cup Beef Stock
  • 2 Tablespoons Garlic (Minced)
  • 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Dried Basil
  • 1 Tablespoon Parmesan (Grated)
  • Olive Oil
  • Kosher Salt
  • Pepper

Step 1: 

In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is “dancing” add the ground meat, and season liberally with salt and pepper. Cook until no longer pink.

Easy Weeknight Bolognese

Easy Weeknight Bolognese

(Sidenote, ground meat does not photograph well…)

“De-fat” if necessary.

Step 2: 

While the meat is browning, heat one tablespoon of olive oil on high heat. Again, when the oil is “dancing” and hot, add the onion and sauté for three to four minutes.

Step 3: 

Next add the carrot and sauté for another two to three minutes. If needed add a little more olive oil. Then add the celery and garlic, and cook until garlic is fragrant.

Easy Weeknight Bolognese

Step 4: 

When the garlic is fragrant, add the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic back to the meat. Stir until combined.

Easy Weeknight Bolognese

Step 5: 

Add the wine and beef stock and raise the temperature to high. Allow the mixture to cook on high for about 15 minutes or until the majority of the liquid has cooked down.

Step 6: 

Once the liquid is cooked down, add your jar of marinara sauce and stir together. Lower the temperature to low.

We highly recommend Rao’s Homemade Sauces. Super delicious and you can read all the ingredients! But really, just pick any sauce that has the least amount of ingredients, and you know is super delicious.

Step 7: 

Next, add the tomato paste, bay leaves, parmesan, and dried basil. Stir together. Allow to cook for at least 15 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.

Serve with your favorite pasta and top with freshly chopped basil.

Easy Weeknight Bolognese

Easy Weeknight Bolognese

Classy Bolognese Sauce

~ Marlee And Christie ~ Leave a comment

One of our favorite dishes to make is Pasta Bolognese. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve made different variations of this dish, but we never tire of making it. For the first time we made our own version of Pasta Bolognese. That’s right, no recipe. We just did it straight from our brains. And it turned out pretty fucking great.

This recipe is a no frills kind of recipe, just classically beautiful, like two young ladies should be!

Classy Bolognese 

Classy Bolognese

Classy Bolognese

Ingredients

  • 1 Shallot (finely diced)
  • 1 Cup Celery (About 4 Stalks, finely diced)
  • 1 Cup Carrots (3 Large, finely diced)
  • 1 Medium Onion (finely diced)
  • 1 Cup Baby Bella Mushrooms (About 9 mushrooms), finely diced)
  • Meat Trio 1lb Each (Beef, Pork, Veal, Italian Sausage, it’s really up to you which ones you use)
  • Garlic Olive Oil
  • 1 Tablespoon Butter
  • 1 Cup Red Wine
  • 2/3 Cup Whole Milk
  • 2 to 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
  • 1 28oz Can Crushed Tomatoes
  • 1 28oz Can Whole Tomatoes
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 2 Basil Leaves ( Cut into Ribbons)
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
  • 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
  • 1 Teaspoon Crushed Red Peppers
  • Few Chunks of a Parmesan Rind
  • 1 Tablespoon Garlic
  • Kosher Salt
  • Pepper

Classy Bolognese

Step 1: 

In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons of garlic olive oil and one tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat.

Step 2: 

When the oil is shimmering add the diced onions, mushrooms and shallot. Sauté for two to three minutes.

See how the oil dances?

Classy Bolognese

Classy Bolognese

Classy Bolognese

Step 3: 

Add the carrots and sauté for another three minutes. Finally, add the celery and continue cooking for at least 1 minute.

Classy Bolognese

Classy Bolognese

Celery has a lot of water, so adding it last is a must!

Classy Bolognese

Step 4: 

If needed, at a little more oil, and then add your Meat Trio. Season liberally with Kosher salt and pepper. Break and brown the meat until the meat is just barely pink.

Classy Bolognese

Step 5: 

Next, add your red wine and raise the heat to high. Cook until all the liquid has cooked off, about 3 to 5 minutes.

It’s okay if it takes longer, we all have different stoves, so don’t be alarmed!

Step 6: 

Once the wine has been cooked off, lower the heat to medium and add the milk. Cook until most of the liquid is gone, this can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes.

Classy Bolognese

Step 7: 

Add the tomato paste in and mix well.

Classy Bolognese

Step 8: 

If you haven’t, squish your whole tomatoes in a separate bowl, you can do it in the pot, but you run the risk of hot splatter, and we don’t think anyone wants that.

Pour your tomatoes in the pot and stir until combined. Add the 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. At this point you can add a splash of red wine.

Classy Bolognese

Step 9: 

Stir in the basil, bay leaf, onion powder, garlic powder, parmesan rinds and red peppers. Taste and season accordingly, if it needs more salt or pepper or any seasoning…add it!

Lower the heat and cook un-covered for 1.5 hours.

Classy Bolognese

Step 10: 

After 1.5 hours of cooking, add 1 hearing tablespoon of chopped garlic. Continue cooking un-covered for 2 to 3 hours. Stir occasionally.

Again, at this point, taste and season accordingly. But go easy on the salt, the rinds have a really nice salty flavor, and release the salt flavor as they melt.

Step 11: 

During the last hour of cooking, you can slowly start to defeat your sauce. This step isn’t necessary but we always defat in the last hour.

Classy Bolognese

Step 12: 

When the sauce is ready, cook your pasta and toss the sauce and pasta together.

*We always reserve at least a cup and half of our pasta water (after the pasta is cooked, but before you drain) and use to toss with the pasta and the sauce.

Classy Bolognese

Classy Bolognese

Classy Bolognese

Boozy Bolognese

~ Marlee And Christie ~ Leave a comment

One thing we really love to cook is Pasta Bolognese. We can’t tell you how many recipes we’ve tried, and even though we’ve made TONS of different versions, we still love finding, cooking, and fine-tuning them just the way we like it.

For this particular recipe, we made it for our close friend Sarah, who can’t eat dairy, or gluten, or basically air, but we still love her. We took out all the dairy and replaced it with wine (Ina approved). I mean, who doesn’t love a good red wine when having Italian? And don’t worry, all the alcohol cooks off, and it leaves this wonderful rich aroma. Trust me, I had some for lunch today, and just the smell had my mouthwatering!

Boozy Bolognese

Doesn’t that look good? Not bad for two amateur photographers! And remember as we continue posting, we continue learning and we will be adding photos with steps, as we make the food. But for now, please look at this deliciously scrumptious photo.

Boozy Bolognese 

  • 1lb ground beef (80/20 is best)
  • 1lb ground pork or sweet pork sausage
  • Olive Oil
  • 8oz carrots finely chopped
  • 8oz celery finely chopped
  • 16oz onions finely chopped
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons garlic
  • 1 bottle of red wine (Chianti is always good)
  • Two 28oz cans tomatoes (San Marzano are best)
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Step 1:

Use about 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil and coat the bottom of a dutch oven or pot. Heat the oil over medium heat till the oil “dances”.

Step 2:

Sauté the onions over medium heat for two to three minutes or until onions are tender and almost translucent. (Variation: you can also add some chopped mushrooms to give it some extra “meatiness”.)

Step 3:

Add the meat and season liberally with salt and pepper. I use a potato masher to break up and evenly distribute the meat on the bottom.

Step 4:

While the meat is browning add the carrots. And stir everything together.

Step 5:

Continue to brown the meat until almost all the pink is gone. Add the celery and then garlic. Once garlic is fragrance, move to the next step.

Step 6:

Next add two cups of red wine, and turn the heat to low and let all the liquid cook off, stirring occasionally. The time varies depending on your oven.

Step 7:

One the liquid is cooked off, add the two cans of tomatoes and two more cups of wine and bring to a boil. Once the sauce starts to boil, lower the heat to low and add the bay leaves.

Step 8:

Let the sauce simmer on low, for three hours and remember to stir occasionally.

Step 9:

Cook a pound of pasta, until al dente and then mix some sauce on those noodles, and EAT IT. You’re welcome.

Well, there it is! Our first official recipe. And it’s not even from Pinterest, just one we made up on the spot! We hope you enjoy our first recipe, and keep a look out for many more to come!