Bolognese Sauce With Italian Herbs

“this is too tomatoey”, “this is too meaty”, “this is boring”

If your household’s complaints department fields these comments when you make bolognese, try this version, it really does work. With 30 minutes of active preparation and cooking and 4 hours of unsupervised oven time, this is a great sauce to have in your freezer.

1 brown onion
2 medium carrots, washed
2 celery sticks, washed, leave the carrot quite chunky for a sweeter effect while caramelising
3 tbs olive oil (mild or extra virgin are both fine)
2 tbs butter
1tsp salt (coarse sea salt works as does kosher salt.)
pinch of coarsely ground black pepper
500g pork mince
500g veal mince
1/4 cup white wine (sauvignon blanc or pino grigio both good)
750 ml bottle passata (Mutti brand works)
4 tbs tomato paste, you can add a little more for a stronger tomato taste
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 tbs dried marjoram
3/4 tbs dried oregano
1/2 tbs dried basil
1/4 tsp dried thyme
tiny pinch of ground nutmeg
2 bay leaves
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 110 degrees celsius (fan-forced).

Peel onion and finely chop in food processor (pulse to avoid creating mush).

Add onion to ovenproof dish with a lid along with oil, butter, salt and pepper.

Place on stovetop and cook on high.

Top and tail carrot and finely chop in food processor (pulse to avoid creating mush).

Add to onion and continue frying. Stir occasionally.

Remove celery leaves and finely chop the celery in food processor (pulse to avoid creating mush).

Add to onion and carrot and fry for 5 minutes or medium high heat.

Reduce heat, place lid on dish and continue to cook over medium high heat for 10 - 15 minutes.

You can do the caramelising without the lid for a slightly less sweet flavour.

Stir occasionally.

Add 500g of the meat to the ovenproof dish with the cooked vegetables. Turn the heat to high and brown well. Tip all of the cooked ingredients into the food processor and process until quite smooth. Return the processed meat and vegetables to the ovenproof dish and add the remaining 500g of meat. Turn the heat to high and brown well to the point of caramelisation. Break up the mince with a wooden spoon while it is cooking. Fry until all of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is well browned and hopefully caramelised.

Add wine and simmer for 5 minutes to allow the alcohol to evaporate.

Add milk and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until half of the milk has evaporated.

Turn heat to low and add passatta, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes (if you are using them), marjoram, oregano , basil, thyme, nutmeg and bay leaves.

Place in the oven and cook for 2-3 hours with the lid on.

Remove the lid after three hours and bake for another 2 hours with the lid off.

Alternatively, you can cook in the oven with the lid off for the whole time 3 hours and forget about the additional 2 hours with the lid off. Both options yield different results. Play around with the approach that works for you.

Use a potato masher to crush the visible chunks of tomato if there are any.

Before serving, you can pour a small amount of cream over the sauce and stir, this helps the sauce adhere to the pasta.

This makes about 8 cups of sauce.