Bolognese Sauce

This is a very traditional Bolognese sauce -- very little tomato in it and slightly 'dry' to our saucy American taste -- but oh so good. It takes a little time, but let me tell you, the house never smelled so good! I found these fun 'track' noodles at this local discount food store (we live near Little Italy and this specific store gets a lot of very unique pastas, it's great) and they were really fun to use with this sauce. Enjoy!

Bolognese Sauce

• 1 lb ground beef (I used ground Turkey -- it's healthier)
• 1 garlic clove - chopped
• 1 onion - chopped fine
• 3 stalks celery - sliced
• 3 large carrots (or one small bag of baby carrots) - chopped fine. I wouldn't even touch this recipe unless you have a food processor! This whole chopping fine thing took a total of 15 seconds in the food processor! Saved my hands, and my sanity!
• 1 1/4 cup beef stock
• 2/3 cup dry white wine (I used mostly wine and a little white wine vinegar - superb!)
• 1 T Italian herbs (I used a combination of Parsley, Oregano, Rosemary, and Tarragon)
• 1 T tomato paste
• 1 (14 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• S & P to taste

-- Brown beef(lean) with the onion and garlic.
--Add the carrots and celery and let cook for about 5 minutes until slightly tender
--Add everything else, bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, for one hour, stirring occasionally. Raise the heat just a little and cook uncovered for about 20 minutes until the sauce thickens. (I didn't read these directions too well when making it and improvised by just boiling for 30 minutes so we could eat at a decent time -- it turned out great but probably would have been even better with all that simmering.)

Also, for you parents out there who need to 'sneak' veggies into your kids, this is great. Evan's not particularly fussy about his greens, but he loved this sauce and ate as much as we did!