Bolognase Sauce

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Bolognase Sauce is SO easy to make. Don't be scared to make Spaghetti Sauce from Scratch - a few ingredients and a little time is all you need!

As a girl who has 100% Dutch heritage, I feel a little weird writing about and sharing a spaghetti sauce recipe. I can hear it now, "what does she know?" Well, depends on the day, but in this case a lot! I got this recipe from a friend at my old work. His parents were born and raised in Italy. So, yes yes I am qualified!

Part two is that I feel funny writing this down cause it's SO EASY!!!! Seriously. EASY! Anyone can make this. So let's get down to business ok?
First - how I roll. I make a HUGE pot of this sauce. It's not time consuming like you are in the kitchen for 6 hours, but you do have to let this sauce cook for a while. So you aren't a slave to the stove, but you have to be there to stir. So why would I want to do that a lot? I don't. So when I go I go big. This is the perfect freezer food. It thaws great and all you have to do is boil noodles, heat sauce for 10 minutes and bam - there is your dinner.
Second - you can't get the measurements wrong, because for the most part there are none (although you do have to follow the can ratio's). But seriously, when you're making a big old pot of gravy you do not need to measure how much Italian seasoning you put in. Really. Make it however flavorful you and your family like!

Third - play around with this. If you don't like ground meat in your sauce, don't use it. Consider putting some big slice of beef in and letting it simmer and taking it out before serving (We have used a cheap shank and removed it before eating - the beef flavor gets in but you aren't eating the tough meat). Many people will use a meat loaf mix (Pork, Hamburg, and Veal). I love love love that flavor combo but I do my sauce cheap so plain old hamburg it is! This isn't rocket science. It's delicious sauce.
ps all of my pictures are for a doubled recipe of this! So if it looks really large - it is!

By the way, if you buy on sale this is actually pretty cost effective too! Rounded off the meat cost me $17, the tomatoes $8, onions, shallots and garlic $5. So a total of $30 or so to make 7 full meals (well plus pasta). Not too shabby.

Bolognase Sauce/Gravy

Ingredients

3 cans of Tomato Sauce
2 cans of Crushed Tomatoes
1 can of Tomato Paste
Onions, sauteed
Shallots, sauteed
Garlic, slightly toasted
Olive Oil
2-3 pounds of ground meat, browned
Italian spice
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Basil (I love basil so I use extra even though there is some in the Italian spice)
Red Pepper Flakes
Sugar

Instructions

So this is so easy, brown your meat - I add a lot of seasoning to the meat as you can see.
Put all the cans of tomatoes into a large large pot (I multitask and do this while the meat is browning). Dump some more seasonings in there and maybe 1/4 cup of sugar - you (or at least I don't) want the sauce too sweet but it is necessary to have a little in there to hit the acid of the tomato.
Turn the stove on very low under the pot. Tomatoes will easily burn and you want this to be a low and slow kind of cooking.
When your meat is browned drain the grease. I will be really honest here, you have to put a small bit of the grease into the sauce. Yes, bad for you but yes good for the taste (I use a turkey baster and put one squirt - not a lot just a little flavor!) Add the meat into the tomatoes.
Chop of some onions and sweat them with a healthy dose of Olive Oil. How fine you chop determines a smoother or chunkier style sauce. When the onions are well on their way all your shallots (shallots add so much flavor don't be shy!). And when the onions and the shallots are almost done add in some garlic for just a couple of minutes. Then add it to the tomatoes and meat.
Now you have sauce! See? SO EASY!
I let mine cook for at least another 2 hours. I want that garlic and onion taste all through the sauce. Stir it at least every 15 minutes.
Out of this I got 7 1/2 meals (remember mine is doubled). I ate that night and then froze 6 1/2 more meals of sauce.

Kitchen Paradise

Bolognase Sauce

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