Bolognese Bonanza

I had been craving a rich, hearty bolognese sauce for some time, and with snow and frigid temperatures setting in, I knew Sunday would be a good day for it. I'd read in the New York Times about a couple of bolognese recipes almost a year ago that changed my view of the stuff -- elevated it in some way. Ever since, I've been trying to perfect my recipe. This Sunday's attempt was no different...except that I was working with Cotton and I was terribly under the weather. I guess now is a good time to point out that I'm not necessarily going for a traditional bolognese -- just a tasty variant on classic bolognese.

Cotton minced up some onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and herbs and spices (probably oregano, basil, red pepper) and sauteed it in a bit of olive oil. I would have used butter, but whatever. Next, she added the meat. We had just under 3 lbs of 'meatloaf mix', which, at my grocery, is equal parts beef, pork, and veal. I don't think you can brown the meat properly if there are onions and whatnot in the pan, and I think browning of the meat is absolutely essential to a great bolognese. Nevertheless, we cooked down the meat and I added milk -- maybe 2 cups. I cooked that until the liquid was gone and then added white wine -- maybe 1 cup -- and the liquid and juice from 2 large cans of plum tomatoes. We reduced that down until nearly gone, then added tomato paste and fried it up a bit until it got dark and rusty. I should mention that this took about 2 hours just to get to this point. Then we added the diced tomatoes that produced the juice mentioned earlier, as well as two cans of crushed tomatoes. Yes, we were going for leftovers.

If I was cooking on my own, I would have browned the meat and removed it, sweat the vegetables, added the paste and fried it, then put the meat back in, then the wine to deglaze, then the milk. I'd reduce that, add my plum tomatoes (diced and crushed) with their juices and reduce the whole mess. This time, it didn't matter because I CAN'T TASTE ANYTHING due to my Cold.

Tragically, the sourdough Cotton and I made did not rise. Luckily I had some whole wheat bread from yesterday on hand, but I was hoping for lots of extra bread for stuffing. (This coming weekend is family Thanksgiving because Cotton and I missed real Thanksgiving.) I'm trying to rehabilitate my starter in hopes that I can make more bread soon.

Photo credits: avlxyz