Our Family Recipes

My son made me delicious homemade pappardelle with bolognese sauce for Mother’s Day. It was awesome. He says he winged it (that’s my boy! Makes Momma proud). It was so delicious I made him tell me what “winging it” involved. This is roughly what he did.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 celery stalk including leaves, diced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 and 1/2 tsp MSG (optional but that’s what he did)
• 3 rashers bacon or the equivalent in pancetta
• 1/2 red wine (traditional is white wine)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups stock (chicken or veggie)
• 1 Tbsp fennel seeds ground
• pinch of nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste
• grated parmesan for serving

Method

1.  In a large frying pan with high sides, sauté ground beef, brown and remove from pan with slotted spoon. Set aside.
2. Sauté bacon / pancetta until browned, remove from pan and add it to the ground beef.
3. Sauté the veggies in the pan drippings until they start to caramelize.
4. Add the tomato paste and continue cooking.
5. Add the garlic and continue cooking until aromatic.
6. Deglaze the pan with the wine.
7. Add the beef and bacon back into the pan.
8. Add the chicken stock.
9. Add the ground fennel and nutmeg.
10. Add a bit of salt and pepper (adjust the seasonings at the end.
11. Cook on medium low until sauce thickens.
12. Cook your pasta (I was lucky that he made homemade pappardelle but you can use any pasta)
13. Using tongs lift the cooked pasta into the sauce pan (you want some pasta water to go with it).
14. Stir to coat, plate and add more sauce on top.
15. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Serves 4.