This is not a perfectly traditional Bolognese recipe because it includes mushrooms, but I almost always add mushrooms — and sometimes a handful of frozen peas.
Sadly, I have to omit the red wine because, contrary to conventional wisdom, a fair amount of alcohol remains in the food after cooking — and I can’t have alcohol with the meds I’m on. You should use red wine with any tomato-based cooking whenever you can, though, because tomatoes have flavor components that are soluble in alcohol but not soluble in water.
If you need even less fat than this recipe, or if you want to avoid the red meat, you can use ground turkey instead of the lean ground beef.
Ingredients
- 1 lb extra-lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup sweet yellow onion, diced
- 1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons dry red wine
- 2 cups passata (tomato puree)
- salt & pepper to taste
Directions
- In a large skillet, brown meat in olive oil.
- Add garlic, onions and mushrooms and sauté until somewhat soft.
- Add basil, thyme and oregano, and season with salt & pepper. Cook a few minutes more until herbs are fragrant.
- Deglaze the skillet with red wine.
- Add passata, reduce heat, cover and cook until sauce has thickened, about 30 minutes.
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