Tastes like all day Bolognese

What you'll Need:

• Enameled Dutch Oven or Large pot
• Large Spoon (I usually opt for a trusty wood spoon!)
• food processor (optional but helpful)
• Cutting board
• Knife
• about 1 hour

Ingredients:

These measurements were mostly determined on vibes. Feel free to adjust up or down based on what you have on hand. 

• 1-2 Tbs Olive Oil
• ~2 Tbs Butter
• 1 small onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• 3+ large cloves of garlic
• 4-8 oz mushrooms
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1 bottle (or whatever is leftover) red wine
• Splash balsamic vinegar
• 1 28 oz can whole tomatoes (drained then hand crushed. Reserve juice)
• 1 tsp beef bouillon and 1/4 c water
•  Or sub 1/4 c stock
• Oregano (dried works just fine), Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Prep your veg! This is where the food processor (or mini food processor or talent with an immersion blender) comes in handy. 

Mince the onion, carrot, and celery, set aside together.

Mince the mushrooms, set aside. 

Crush the drained tomatoes, reserving liquid, by hand. (Or with a potato masher or lightly processed with an immersion blender or in the food processor). Don't turn it into puree just break up the large tomato pieces. 

Place your dutch oven on the stove top over medium heat and add Olive Oil & butter.  Once oil has heated, add onion, carrot, and & celery mix. Cook the veg down until soft. 

Then add the mushrooms and stir well. Cook down while stirring frequently. Once the pan starts to dry up after the mushrooms release their moisture, add garlic and lightly season with salt. Stir frequently until fragrant.

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.

Once meat has browned, drop the heat to medium-low and pour the wine and balsamic vinegar into the pot. Reduce until only a Tablespoon or two remains. The mixture should no longer resemble soup but should have some moisture left. 

Stir in the Crushed Tomatoes, ~1/8 c reserve sauce & bouillon. Season with Oregano (and whatever other seasonings you like) to taste. Feel free to adjust the liquid ratios as needed to your preference.

Continue to simmer on med-low until most of the liquid has cooked out. The mixture should be fairly dry. 

Serve over your favorite pasta or use in your favorite baked pasta dish (like Lasagna, baked ziti, etc etc).

Additional Notes:

Inspiration for this was definitely Stanley Tucci's 20 min Bolognese. Though with the addition of the wine cook down, my version takes more than 20 min. But to make it even faster, omit the wine and add the splash of balsamic right before you add the tomatoes. Can also splash in some soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce for an extra umami boost. 

If you are using the wine.... Sorry Julia Child, but in my opinion the best drinking wine is not always the best cooking wine. The flavors you taste when you drink a room temp or chilled wine are don't always shine through in cooked dishes. So feel free to use that $2 Chuck or Aldi discount wine as the flavor is pretty much guaranteed to improve when heat is applied. 

Oregano can be omitted but I personally prefer it with oregano. You can also add Italian seasoning and/or chile flakes instead or in addition.