Ina Fridays: Weeknight Bolognese

It's time for another Ina Friday!  Unfortunately I missed last month because I was sick and in no condition to cook, but it's a new month!  This time we were supposed to make a main dish.  I had about 5 main dish Ina recipes bookmarked as potentials, and after spending all day today thinking about her Weeknight Bolognese, I picked up the ingredients on the way home from work and whipped it up.

This recipe did not disappoint!  I did have to make a few small changes, the most important being that I only used 1/2 teaspoon salt instead of a tablespoon, and only 1/4 teaspoon black pepper instead of 1 1/2 teaspoons.  I think this was a VERY good call because with that amount of salt, we probably would have shriveled up and died.  Reducing the pepper was more an issue of personal taste, but I really think the given amount would have been excessive.  I also left out the olive oil simply because even lean ground beef has enough fat to cook fine, and used pre-shredded parmesan.  Normally for a recipe like this, I would have grated my own, but I had an open container in the fridge that I couldn't bear to throw away!  It definitely would have been better with freshly grated though, the pre-shredded kind detracted a bit from the dish because it made it a little chalky.  One last thing- I boiled a whole 1 pound box of shells even though the recipe called for 3/4 and thought my husband would just eat the leftover pasta with butter for lunch.  The recipe ended up making so much sauce, though, that I went ahead and mixed all of the pasta with it.  Even with the extra noodles, it was still wonderfully saucy.

Now, plenty of sauce aside, what did we think of this recipe?  Well, my husband LOVED it and rated it 10 out of 10!  I didn't like it nearly as much as he did, but it's still something I will make again and am quite pleased with how it turned out.  The sauce is very robust and hearty with great flavor from the wine and a bit of creaminess.  It does not taste like a sauce that was only simmered for 20 minutes!  Next time I may experiment with adding a bit more cream, mostly because there was a lot left over in the container and there's no way an extra 1/4 cup cream could make it worse.

Weeknight Bolognese

1 lb ground beef

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp dried oregano

1 1/4 C red wine, divided

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

2 Tbsp tomato paste

salt to taste (I used 1/2 tsp)

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 C fresh basil, chopped roughly and packed lightly into measuring cup

1/4 C heavy cream

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 lb small pasta such as shells or orecchiette

1/2 C freshly grated parmesan, plus more for serving

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high and add ground beef.  Saute until cooked through.  Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and oregano and saute another minute, until garlic starts to turn golden.  Add 1 cup of the wine and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, and pepper.  Bring sauce to a boil, then cover with a splatter screen, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After the 10 minutes are up, begin to cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water.  While the pasta cooks, stir basil, cream, and nutmeg into sauce and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until pasta is done. 

Drain pasta and place into a large serving bowl.  Pour sauce on top and add the parmesan.  Toss until pasta is coated and cheese is melted.  Serve in bowls topped with additional parmesan.

Yield: 5 generous servings