Who hasn’t eaten this!!! unless you are younger than 6 months of age, you have probably enjoyed meat sauce on your spaghetti. It is well known around the world by many and also it has so many variations to the recipe as families are in this world; not even counting the variations that change the sauce and transforms the recipe completely.

The recipe that goes with this blog entry is very dear to me, as it has accompany me for approximately 25 years. Let me expand a bit more, Bolognese Sauce is not a recipe that belongs to one person, more likely you have learned it from someone, in my personal case, I can name my grandma, my grandpa, my aunt’s Chela home, my uncle Raul, my Tia Lidia, the moms of two of my best friends as a child Angela and Carla, etc. But the ones that influence me the most were my dad, my mom, and my mother in law.

From them 3, I created what I call today “My Bolognese Sauce” In my way to see it, everyone’s is good, I just like the taste of my home’s better, because this type of food works on your memory and your heart, not only your taste buds. My father made one (way to many carrots), My mom made one ( Too much onion, but yummy), My mother in law, Mamamama, also made hers, and hers with some little things from my dad’s and my mom’s, and of course I contribute also, it finally made “Mine”. so in a weird and estrange way, I remember some of the most important people in my life in just one recipe; and for me it feels that they are literally standing next to me:

• My dad will say, or even better he will start shredding 2 or three more carrots
• My mom -Freykita- cook the onions longer, -Freykita- don’t forget the Laurel (bay-leaf) and the honguitos (dry mushrooms), my dad said to never forget the hongos, -Freykita- no te olvides la pasta de tomate, le da consistencia (don’t forget the tomato paste it gives the sauce consistency), -Freykita- let the sauce cook longer.
• My mother in law, she is a little bit more chefy about things, so her recipe had a lot more structure, and she always believe in standardizing recipes so that they will always be the same, and she did not just blended the tomatoes, but used her own tomato sauce. “In Peru, during those times cans were not a thing, and canned tomato sauce was expensive and not commonly sold in stores”.

So, without further ado, but with the hope you read the Chef Notes to learn the why’s and the “wise” of this recipe, I leave you here!!!

• 

“My” Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/4 oz. Dry porcini mushrooms, soften in cold water
• 4 tbsp. Oil, a 50/50 blended of canola and olive oil
• 1 medium Yellow onion, diced small
• 4 each Bay leaf
• 4 tbsp. Garlic, minced
• 1 medium Carrot shredded
• 2 lb. Ground beef, 80/20
• 2 tbsp. Oregano, crushed
• 2 tbsp. Dried parsley
• ½ cup Port wine
• 4 tbsp. Tomato paste
• 4 cups Tomato sauce, store bought or homemade
• 2 tbsp. Fresh oregano, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. Italian parsley, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. Sugar Optional
• 2 tbsp. Balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, soak the Porcini mushrooms with cold water until soften.
2. Preheat a medium sauce pot, (I like Stainless Steel because of the acidity of the tomato), add oil and heat it through.
3. Add the onions, 3-finger pinch of kosher salt and bay leaves. Cook onions until they are tender to the bite with a caramelized look.
4. Add 1 tbsp. garlic and stir in until fragrant. Add the carrots and keep stirring until they are tender.
5. Immediately add the beef, some salt, crushed dry oregano, dry parsley, and the pre-soaked mushrooms. Mix all together for 1 to 2 minutes. Making sure that the beef browns completely and not in clumps.
6. Add the wine to de-glaze the pot a little. Incorporate the tomato paste and add the tomato sauce.
7. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes to allow the flavors to mix together.
8. Incorporate the fresh herbs.
9. Before turning off, do a little taste. Decide how much from the balsamic vinegar and the sugar you would like to add. The amounts given are for an specific tomato sauce that I buy, (Harmons or Marzano) there for I do not know how well balanced your tomato sauce is, there for you must give this a try or two and adjust those two amounts.
10. Enjoy cooking! learn from the process and read the chef notes!

Chef Notes for the Pro-Chef Kitchen

• Why to cook onions until tender:
  • Onions have a strong, sulfuric taste when raw, and though we do like onions raw in certain preparations; it is not the same when we talk about sauces, stews, soups and all dishes alike, in those dishes there is no place for a raw, crunchy onion. When onions are patiently cook until tender, the onion texture changes and not even say the flavor. It sort of sweetens on its own and melts away into the preparation you are making.
• Why is the softening of the onions important to the Bolognese Sauce
  • Tomatoes contain high acidity, and if you add to that the canning process, the acidity is even higher. Onions, or better say, softened and caramelized onions are a great natural sweet ingredient to battle the tomato acidity.
• Why to add bay leaf to your dishes at the beginning:
  • First thing to know is that bay leaf has a sweet fragrance; and that being said, bay leaf also contributes to the sweetening of the dish. The best moment to extract the sweet flavor of bay leaf is at the beginning of the cooking process, the fat in the onions been the first way the flavor goes out, the heat is the next, and also the sulfuric of the onions contributes to the release of sweetness from the bay leaf.
• Why to stir the garlic in until fragrant:
  • First of all, let’s think about the flavor of garlic: pungent, spicy, sometimes bitter; but the one no one recognizes is sweet, because sweetness comes with the cooking of garlic. The wording says stir until fragrant, because after the beautiful smell our sweet garlic, will start to burn and with that the garlic will deliver a bitter taste. If you stir until fragrant and you add a new ingredient into the cooking vessel to stop the cooking of garlic, you will preserve the sweet fragrance to flavor your dish.
• Why to deglaze:
  • If the browning of the meat part went as planned, there should be some browning stick on the bottom of our pot. When the acidity of the wine touches this, it dissolves those caramelized brown spots, and it dissolves them so that they can mingle better in the sauce. Always use a wooden spoon to help deglaze the pan.
• Crush dry oregano:
  • For better flavor, crush the oregano in the palm of your hands, the flavor will sort of activate, giving you a beautiful flavor in your recipes.