Lazy All Day Bolognese

Lazy All Day Bolognese

What you'll Need:

• Enameled Dutch Oven or Large pot
• Enameled is always recommended over plain cast iron for acidic foods like tomatoes
• Large Spoon (wood is my favorite but it doesn't make a difference if you opt for plastic)
• Mesh strainer (optional but super helpful!)
• Cutting board
• Knife
• 4-5 hours to spare and patience

Ingredients: (serves 4-6)

• 2 Tbs Olive Oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 5-6 large cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 lb ground meat (I like a beef-pork mix or all pork, but any ground meat that you'd prefer works here)
• 1 bottle of your favorite red wine for cooking
• 1 28 oz can whole tomatoes (crushed in your hand or a food processor without juice)
• can substitute for 1 can of Crushed tomatoes but Whole tomatoes are usually a higher quality than crushed
• 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1-2 Tbs Tomato Paste
• Oregano (dried works just fine), Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place your dutch oven on the stove top over medium heat and add Olive Oil.  Once oil has heated, add onion and garlic and lightly season with salt. Stir frequently until fragrant.
2. Increase heat to medium-high and add ground meat. Season with Salt & Pepper (a pinch of each is a good place to start).  Stir to break up the meat into chunks and allow meat to sear a bit before stirring again.
3. Once meat has browned, drop the heat to medium-low and pour the bottle of wine into the pot (if you'd like to save a glass for the cook, that's fine too!)  Allow wine to slowly reduce down until only a Tablespoon or two remains. (This usually takes about 20 minutes on my stove!)
4. When wine has reduced, bring the meat back up to medium-high, and add the tomato paste.  Work the paste into the meat mixture and allow to cook up for a minute or two.  Then stir in the rest of your tomato products (Crushed Tomatoes, Sauce & Diced) and season with Oregano to taste (I usually end up seasoning with a lot of Oregano as the person who gave me this recipe instructed you can use as much as you'd like.  I usually start with 1 Tbs dried oregano and taste as it cooks to see if I need to add more).
5. Once everything is mixed well, drop the heat back down to medium-low or low. The mixture needs to be cooking at just barely a simmer for the next 3-4 hours.
6. Be sure to stir it once or twice an hour to make sure it's cooking OK.  You'll know when it's ready when the sauce has darkened and become very thick.
7. Serve over your favorite pasta or use in your favorite baked pasta dish (like Lasagna, baked ziti, etc etc).

Additional Notes:

• This is seriously a lazy day sauce as it truly takes 4-5 hours for prep and cook time but your patience will be well rewarded! This is my all time favorite bolognese recipe!
• Oregano can be substituted for Italian Seasoning but I have to say that Oregano is pretty much all you need for this recipe.
• Lastly, as great as this sauce is the night that you make it, it's EVEN BETTER the next day! So if you're hoping to make it ahead and enjoy it later, this is a great recipe to use!