Meat Sauce In The Style Of Bologna

Total Time: 3 hrs 10 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and chunked
• 2 stalks celery & leaves, chunked
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 cup chicken liver, rinsed, dried and chopped
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3 cups roma tomatoes, peeled, crushed, juice reserved
• 3 bay leaves
• black pepper
• hot water, as needed

Recipe

• 1 process the onion, carrot and celery until the consistency is almost a paste, but not quite.
• 2 heat the oil in a 4 quart pan over medium heat.
• 3 stir in processed vegetables and cook for around 5 minutes.
• 4 push the vegetables to the side of the pan and add the chicken livers.
• 5 cook until the livers are done through and stir them together with the vegetables.
• 6 add the ground meats, stirring to break them up.
• 7 cook until the juices coming from the meat have evaporated.
• 8 push everything to sides of pan, pour in a little more olive oil and turn heat to high.
• 9 when oil begins to sizzle, add the tomato paste.
• 10 stir the paste around until it begins to brown and gives off a caramelly-tomato aroma.
• 11 turn heat back down to medium and deglaze the caramelized paste with the red wine.
• 12 pull all other ingredients back into center of pan and stir.
• 13 pour in the tomatoes, juice and bay leaves.
• 14 stir well and bring to a boil.
• 15 turn heat down just to a good simmer and cover.
• 16 cook covered, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has become very dense and is a dark mahogany color, at least 2 hours.
• 17 add water or more red wine if the sauce is sticking.
• 18 there should be a layer of fat risen to the top near the end of the cooking process.
• 19 remove this if you want, but traditionally it is reincorporated.
• 20 to make your sauce very smooth, put it through a food mill after cooking.