JOHN SPENCER'S BOLOGNESE SAUCE

John Spencer's Bolognese Sauce image

Provided by Food Network

Time 3h

Yield serves 6 to 8 people, with leftovers

Number Of Ingredients 24

Ingredients

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled Italian tomatoes, undrained
1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 medium white onion, finely chopped
1/2 bunch Italian parsley, leaves chopped
1 package mushrooms, chopped
4 large fresh oregano, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh leaves of basil, chopped
1 large stalk celery, chopped
1-cup chianti or good Italian red wine
2 (16-ounce) cans tomato sauce
Salt
Pepper
1/2 pound lean premium ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
Olive oil
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 hot sausage link (optional)
1 mild sausage (optional)
2 tablespoons butter
3 pounds pasta of your choice, cooked al dente

Steps:

In a large cast iron skillet, place the olive oil and cloves of garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes over medium heat until garlic gets light tan but not brown. Add the tomatoes into the oil and garlic and scald tomatoes for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, and breaking up with wooden spoon. Transfer tomato mixture to a large saucepan and keep on low heat. Clean out cast iron skillet for upcoming use.
Mix chopped vegetables and herbs together in a big bowl. Take 1/3 of mixture and set aside. Put the remaining 2/3 into saucepan with tomato mixture. Add 1 cup of good Italian red wine, such as Chianti (do not use cooking wine) to tomato mixture. Add 2 (16-ounce) cans of tomato sauce to tomato mixture. Add 1 teaspoon salt to taste, and freshly ground pepper (as such as you like). Let the tomato sauce cook uncovered simmering for 1hour.
Put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in bottom of cast iron skillet. Add ground beef, ground pork, and remaining 1/3 vegetable mixture. Cook until meat is medium well and then add mixture to tomato sauce. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar to pot. Simmer tomato sauce partially covered for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
When tomato sauce is about 15 minutes away from being done, take the 2 sausage links, make a slit down the middle, but do not cut in half. Put the water on to a boil for pasta. Cook Pasta. Place the sausage links in the cast-iron skillet and cook until browned all the way through. Slice sausage into chunks. Either add sausage to tomato sauce or use as suggested below.
Place pasta in large serving bowl, add butter, mix, add enough sauce to coat, and as much fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese as you like. Serve pasta from the big bowl into individual servings with a few sausage chunks and more if desired. Bon Appetit!