Bolognese Sauce (Québec)

The key to a good bolognese is simmering it very slowly over low heat for several hours. This long simmering makes the beef incredibly tender and turns the sauce into something that will make your eyes roll up in your head. This sauce was one of my favourite weekend sauce to make for my family. We'd have it with pasta on the day it was made and throughout the week for Lasagna and then with the addition of a few tins of beans, Chilli. It is as versatile as it is delicious and very warming for the long winters in Montréal. Even if tomatoes are harvesting, you will not get the same result with peeled and seeded fresh tomatoes than with canned tomatoes, which are much softer. Just sayin'.

1½ lb sweet or spicy Italian sausage (ideally a mixture of both), casing removed (675 g)
1½ lb lean ground beef (675 g)
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil (60 mL)
1¼-1½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (2.5 mL)
3 cups onions, finely chopped
1½ cups carrots, peeled, finely chopped
1½ cups celery, finely chopped
4-6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 (5½ oz) can tomato paste (156 mL)
2 (28 oz) cans Italian tomatoes, diced (796 mL)
2 (28 oz) cans tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes with purée (796 mL)
2 cups beef broth (500 mL)
2 tsp. dried oregano (10 mL)
2-3 whole cloves
sea salt
black pepper, freshly ground

Garnish:
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

In a large saucepan, brown the meat in 30 mL (2 Tbsp.) of the oil, half at a time, with the red pepper flakes. Add oil, if needed. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside in a bowl.

In the same saucepan, soften the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in the remaining oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute over high heat.

Add the meat, tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, oregano, and cloves. Bring to a boil and simmer gently, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan regularly, for about 3 hours or until it thickens.

Serve over the pasta of your choice and garnish with Parmesan.

Makes about 20 generous servings.

Cook's Notes:

• Oven-cooking instructions: You can duplicate this recipe in a covered Dutch oven. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Prepare the recipe in a Dutch oven, cover the pot, and transfer it to the oven to cook. Cooking time will be 2-3 hours - check the sauce every hour to see how it's coming along and add more of the reserved tomato juices as needed if the bottom of the pot becomes dry.
• Doubling the recipe: This recipe freezes so well that I often make a double batch and freeze what I won't eat right away. Double all the ingredients except for the bay leaf.
• Freezing bolognese sauce: Freeze the sauce in individual portions. It's best to let the portions thaw in the fridge overnight before warming, but frozen bolognese can also be thawed and warmed in a covered pot over very low heat on the stovetop.