The Vietnamese Italian | Garden Herb Spaghetti Bolognese

Updated photo from August 2010 lunch.

Growing up, I loved my mother’s spaghetti and my aunt’s lasagna. While I have no idea what was in my aunt’s lasagna, my mother’s spaghetti sauce recipe was simple: sauté one onion. Add a pound of ground beef. Discard fat. Add package of Lawry’s Spaghetti Seasoning. Add can of tomato sauce. Salt, pepper and serve over spaghetti noodles with some garlic bread.

Between my brother and I, my mom’s spaghetti was probably requested about once a week. I’ll have to ask her if that’s really how often we ate it the next time I see her.

So, given my love for spaghetti, lasagna (and mozzarella, prosciutto, capers, anchovies, wine…) it was just fitting that I fell for an Italian:

Earlier this year, when I made a batch of spaghetti for Barry, he said, “this is ok, but my dad’s spaghetti had chicken, bacon and carrots in it, and that made it really good.” Umm, okay. I can work on that.

Enter Emeril: resident Cardinal of Italian food. After trying his Spaghetti Bolognese (because it had bacon and carrots), I decided that carrots were a-okay. Emeril’s version (2004) uses a 1/4 cup of heavy cream and 2 tbsp. of butter in addition to all that meat fat. So… while it’s good, it can’t possibly be too good for our waistline. And… not to knock our own recipe, but even our version is still high in calories.

So many, many pots of Bolognese later, here’s our version. Slightly different, but good for us. I really like it because there’s always onions, carrots and celery lying around, and this is a good way to use ‘em up. A few modifications, including more herbs, the addition of fennel seeds, and maple sausage. I find the maple helps cut the tart in the tomato. Someday, we’ll go with tomatoes from scratch. Until then, canned ones are handy. On a splurge evening, we’ll add in some bacon or prosciutto or pancetta (whatever’s in the fridge). On a budget evening (such as this one), we went with the 30% fat ground beef because it was the cheapest, and then siphoned off 1/2 cup of fat before adding in the onions. (!!!!!)

Special Notes: Use premium pasta (like Rustichella D’Abruzzo); the cheap stuff will kill your meal. And save your leftover parsley stems for another use, such as chicken stock or garden chicken soup. Also, you don’t have to do this if it’s beyond your comfort level, but I’m saving my leftover beef and pork grease in the fridge for another use, too.

Please enjoy. Time to call my aunt for her lasagna recipe.

[K]

What’s your favorite Italian dish?

Spaghetti Bolognese

~

2009

~ Serves ~

12

~ Ingredients ~

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 8 oz. maple pork sausage
• 1 medium brown onion
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. pepper
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 carrot
• 2 stalks celery
• ½ tsp. oregano
• ½ tsp. thyme
• ½ tsp. basil
• ¼ tsp. fennel
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 cup Burgundy / other red wine
• 1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 8-oz. can tomato paste
• 1 14.5-oz. can beef broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 lb. spaghetti
• 1 cup parmesan cheese, to finish
• ½ cup chopped parsley leaves, for garnish

~ Preparation ~

Preparation Time: 2 hours

1. In a 4-quart casserole pot over medium-low heat, cook ground beef and maple sausage for about 10 minutes. While this is cooking, dice onion and celery and grate carrot. Mince garlic.
2. After about 10-15 minutes of cooking meat, drain the fat (the batch from this recipe yielded ½ cup of removed fat from 70% lean ground beef). Then add in onion, celery, carrots, garlic, salt, pepper and spices. Cook additional 5 minutes.
3. Add 2 tbsp. tomato paste. Cook 2 more minutes.
4. Add cup of wine. Stir to deglaze pot and cook 3 more minutes to reduce wine.
5. Add in can of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and beef broth. Add bay leaves. Let simmer for one hour.
6. At one hour, cook spaghetti according to package directions. Chop parsley and set out parmesan cheese. By the time spaghetti is cooked, the meat sauce should be finished.
7. Remove bay leaves.
8. In pasta bowl, add in 2 oz. spaghetti noodles and then ladle on top ½ cup of spaghetti sauce. (Or, toss and then plate.) Top with 1 tbsp. of parmesan cheese and pinch of chopped parsley leaves. Serve immediately.

Source: Rustic Garden Bistro

Nutrition content per serving: 604 calories, 80g carbs, 32g protein, 18g fat, 7g fiber

Cost per serving: $1.50 – $2.00

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Tagged as: Ground beef, Maple sausage, Oregano, Parsley, Red wine, Thyme