Fettuccine Bolognese
Chunky, meaty Bolognese sauce made with red wine and served with spinach fettuccine. There are so many variations of this pasta sauce that originates from Bologna, Italy and Wikipedia says the authentic sauce has very little tomato in it. Other versions do not contain red wine — mine does because red wine does something to tomato-based sauces that makes them incredible robust. Some recipes use more than one kind of ground meat; often, a combination of pork, veal and beef. My recipe substitutes smoked belly bacon for pancetta, the Italian dry cured pork belly that is often referred to as Italian bacon.
Serves 4 to 6.
Ingredients and cooking instructions
225 g. of spinach fettuccine (or substitute your favorite pasta variety)
400 g. of ground beef
6 tbsps. of olive oil
200 g. of smoked belly bacon, minced
1 28-oz. can of stewed tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, finely sliced
1 pimiento, cored, seeded and chopped
1 c. of semi-sweet red wine
salt
pepper
fresh parsley, for garnish
grated cheese, to serve
Cook the pasta al dente. Drain and set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a pot. Add the ground beef, stirring to break up lumps. Cook until the meat is lightly browned. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, for a few minutes. Add the vegetables, pour in the stewed tomatoes and red wine. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for at least one hour until the sauce is rich and thick and has gone way beyond the soupy stage. Yes, that takes at least one hour. That’s really part of the secret of rich and savory sauces — the slow long cooking that allows the vegetables to soften and turn mushy, making the sauce thick and rich. Add more salt and pepper, if necessary, before serving.
To serve, place some cooked pasta on individual plates. Ladle the sauce on top. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and grated cheese.
Comments
18 Responses to “Fettuccine Bolognese”If you want your own pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
Stay updated!
View the archive
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Oct | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |||||
Chicken and spinach stir fry
Mac and cheese… with prawns and asparagus
Char siu (chashao, cha siu or char siew) pork
Pork and asparagus egg drop soup
Baked stuffed potatoes
Appetizers
Asian
Birthdays & Parties
breakfast club
cakes
cheese
Chinese
chocolate
Christmas & New Year
Cooking for one
Daddy cooks!
Filipino
Italian Job
muffins & cupcakes
omelet
pasta
salads
School lunchbox
spring rolls
Superb soups
Conversations
- Mia on 'Penne with portobello mushrooms': Hi, I just bought a bag of pre-washed, pre-sliced portabellos and...
- faye on 'Cheesecake with homemade blueberry topping': hi ms connie. wats the difference betweeen ur 2...
- Crisma on 'Chocolate chip cookies with fresh mint': How many cookies were you able to make, Connie? And...
- cia on 'Lemon chicken': can i use the ordinary ginger instead of the turmeric? thanks…
- RobKSA on 'Honey-glazed, herb-crusted whole leg of lamb': Since no pork here in Saudi Arabia, this is a...
Feast Asia
Fish tempura - I used to love whole, unfilleted asohos when I was pregnant with Sam. My mother-in-law would fry small... »
Connie!!! You made me crave for pasta right now!
I cooked this about two weeks ago and, while resizing the photo prior to blogging, I’d be craving too if I don’t feel so stuffed with the pork and chicken adobo we had for dinner. Ah, adobo! The eternal comfort food for my family.
Hi, Connie… I noticed “can of stewed tomatoes”… why not fresh tomatoes?
And yeah, I agree— Filipinos really love adobo as comfort food! Walang kamatayang adobo!
When fresh stewing tomatoes are available (during the summer, mostly), they’re the better option, but when there are only the tart green yellowish ones in the market, they’re no good for stews. Too makunat — they don’t liquefy well.
hi connie good day.. the bolognese looks really yummy … is there any substitute in can stewed tomatoes & pimiento… pwede n ba yung fresh tomatoes & bell pepper?
Where do you buy “stewed tomatoes”? What brand do you buy?
And what brand of wine do you cook with?
Geraldine, fresh is always good so long as they are plump and juicy.
Nikita, the brand is Capri. Cheapest ehehehe
Hi Ms. Connie,
I don’t drink at all but have always wanted to use wine in cooking. Could you recommend semi sweet red wine? Thanks! God Bless.
Uyyy…. ganda ganda ng site ngayon ah…
well worth din naman pala nung di ako makaaccess ng pinoycook kanina.. nagupgrade pala… so nice po…
Will try cooking this po…
Actually, Chexy, it was a forced upgrade. Sometime last night, one of the cats walked all over the keyboard (natanggal nga yung letter “I”, buti naibalik) while the computer was on. Something got screwed really bad and I had to ditch the old theme among other things.
toinkz! pero cge lang po maganda naman… buti di nadelete accidentally ang mga recipes… kundi mawala kitchen powers ng mga followers mo… hehehe! Namin pala… hehehe!
Chexy, nangyari na yan in December 2005. The database crashed and everything was gone. Buti na-recreate although all the comments were forever gone.
and your cats did those too? naku ha.. pano ba yan natrain..?hehehe! Buti na lang narecreate… can just imagine the stress both sides..
may naobserve lang ako ms cons, yung # sa comments puro 1…
Ah in 2005, no… I was upgrading and everything just went berserk. I was using Expression Engine then, not Wordpress.
Re comment #: I checked with Firefox, Safari, Opera and Camino. The problem you’re seeing was in Opera. You’re using Opera? I’ll have to check that. Thanks for mentioning it. Geeky work again.
nice idea for my plan for a surprise breakfast for hubby!
pagkain po ba yun? Hehehe! Sori po can’t relate sa mga terms na ganyan… Pagkain, matalino ako.. Hehehe! If firefox is the same with iexplorer, then i am using iexplorer… Now i realize, blogging is not all writing and making sense in what you write… Now ill be clicking more of your ads 2 make it worthwhile for u.ü i’ve read from somewhere in the comment thread that u could actually earn from it, so it must be really true,earning online.. Click click away!ühehehe!
Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE) are two different browsers. The latest version of IE don’t have so many issues.
Thanks for clicking, Chexy.
Too bad it’s already too hot here for stews – this recipe is very close to one in a magazine that I’ve tried and loved! I find that using tinned tomatoes or tomato passata is heaps better than fresh though… maybe it’s just me, but there’s a depth of flavour there that I can’t get if I use fresh tomatoes.
Here’s a variation on the recipe that you may want to try – the magazine recipe I had suggested using gravy beef, diced small rather than ground beef (this is actually a cheaper option over here, since ground beef cost a lot more than a chunk of gravy beef). After the beef is very soft from slow simmering – about two or three hours, stir the sauce vigorously with a fork to break up the meat. Some recipes for “authentic” bolognaise also suggest adding a tiny bit of milk or cream at the end to thicken and enrich the sauce. Not something I’ve tried, but I might next time I cook bolognaise.