To accompany this activity, I decided to make an easy Bolognese sauce. A comforting meal even though it was 70 degrees out and it didn't much feel like Christmas outside. I put on the Christmas music and pretended we had a cozy fire and we decided to make it feel like a New England Christmas even if we were no where near one. For the Bolognese, I turned, once again, to Giada. Her simple Italian recipes are always spot on and are usually the perfect one pot meals. As always, I added the cooked pasta directly into the sauce with a bit of the pasta water to make the sauce thicken. Definitely try this technique the next time you make any pasta sauce.
Simple Bolognese (from Giada De Laurentiis)
- Serves 4-6
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
- 1 carrot, coarsely chopped
- 1 pound ground chuck beef
- 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chiffonade
- 8 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
In a 6 quart pot, add extra-virgin olive oil. When almost smoking, add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until the onions become very soft, about 8 minutes. Add the celery and carrot and saute for 5 minutes. Raise heat to high and add the ground beef. Saute, stirring frequently and breaking up any large lumps and cook until meat is no longer pink, about 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes, parsley and basil and cook over medium low heat until the sauce thickens, about 1/2 hour. Finish bolognese with Pecorino Romano. Check for seasoning.
Serve hot.