Pasta Bolognese

I first made Pasta Bolognese with my Mom as soon as I was tall enough to reach the stove top to brown the meat. Today, I do my own version inspired by hers with a few extra tweaks to make it extra special.

Pasta Bolognese

Servings: 1 cup
Yield: 8
Prep Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1 lb sweet Italian sausage
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 white onion
1 Tbs oil
1 pint grape tomatoes
2 tsp salt
5 cloves garlic
½ tsp ground fennel seed
1 tsp granulated garlic
2 tsp paprika
14.5 oz canned crushed tomatoes
14.5 oz tomato sauce
14.5 oz water
6 oz tomato paste
¼ cup balsamic vinegar

Preparation

Start with browning 1 pound of 80/20 ground beef and 1 pound of mild Italian sausage (unless you're spicy, then go with hot sausage).
Then chop up 1 red pepper, 1 white onion, 1 green bell pepper and saute over medium high heat in a large pot with 1 Tbs. olive oil.
Once the veggies soften, reduce heat to medium low and add in 5 cloves of mashed and minced garlic, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp granulated garlic, 2 tsp smoked paprika, ½ tsp ground fennel seed, and 2 tsp dried oregano.
Mix the spices with the veggies until the spices become fragrant (2 to 3 minutes).
Strain off half of the fat from the browned meat and add the meat to the veggie pot. Also add in 1 pint of halved grape tomatoes and stir to mix everything together and allow to heat and flavors mingle for 3 to 5 minutes.
Add in 14.5 ounces of canned crushed tomatoes, 14.5 ounces tomato sauce, 14.5 ounces water, 6 ounces tomato paste and ¼ cup balsamic vinegar and mix everything together.
Turn up the heat to high until the sauce starts to simmer and then reduce to medium low and let it sit uncovered slowly simmering for at least an hour (the longer the better).
The sauce will reduce and thicken and the flavors will intensify over time.