Description
A slow simmering Italian meat sauce made with a vegetables, mixture of ground beef and Italian sausage, red wine and hand smashed tomatoes.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 celery stalks, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 lb spicy Italian sausage
- 1 cup red wine
- 4 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 nutmeg, freshly grated
- 1 28 oz can of peeled tomatoes, hand mashed
- 1/2–1 cup water (to add as the sauce cooks)
- 1 parmesan reggiano rind *optional
- 1 cup milk
- Salt and pepper to season
- 1lb tagliatelle pasta
- Extra parmesan reggiano for topping
Instructions
- In dutch oven over medium heat, add olive oil and butter to pot. Melt butter with oil. Add onions, celery, carrots. Season with salt and pepper and let them simmer down in the pot for 7-10 minutes.
- Once softened, add ground beef and Italian sausage to pan. Break up the meat as it cooks down. The meat will start to turn a grey color once it is cooked. Continue to stir and break down meat as it cooks. Once meat is cooked, grate fresh nutmeg about 1/4 tsp.
- Add 1/2 cup red wine to the pot and stir to remove any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Let that simmer for 1-2 minutes until cooked down.
- Pour peeled tomatoes into a bowl and mash the tomatoes with your hands to break them down. Pour the mashed tomatoes into the dutch oven with your sauce.
- Add tomato paste, stir into sauce and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes. Turn down the heat when the sauce starts to bubble.
- Simmer very low and slow for 2-3 hours, uncovered. Stir in 1/2 cup water to the pot when the sauce starts to thicken. You may have to do this a couple of times but when the sauce is done, it should not have standing water in it. After 1 hour of simmering, add in parmesan rind (if you have one, if not, just add parmesan at the end).
- When you have about 20 minutes left of finishing the sauce, boil water for pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions. Save 1 cup of pasta water. Strain rest of water from pot.
- Add in 1 cup of milk and stir for a couple of minutes until fully incorporated.
- For serving: Add a couple spoonfuls of sauce to your bowl, place pasta on top, pour a little bit of pasta water on the noodles and mix sauce in with the noodles. This will help to incorporate the sauce into the pasta better. Add additional sauce on top and top with freshly grated parmesan.
Notes
- Make a soffritto: onion + celery + carrots
- Mix of olive oil and butter = enhanced flavor from oil and creaminess from butter
- Use a dry red wine. We recommend a sauvignon blanc or a pinot grigio.
- Nutmeg: You can use 1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg, but the fresh nutmeg with give the sauce a stronger flavor.
- Parmesan rind: adds a lot of nutty, cheesy flavor to the pasta sauce. After about an hour of simmering, add to sauce for the remainder of the time. Some stores will sell just the rind of parmesan in their special cheese section.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 3 hours