This Foreign Life: Slow Simmered Sunday

It's simple, easy, rich, creamy, and the recipe calls for this to simmer for up to 6 hours. Yes, you read that correctly. Six. Hours. Don't let that discourage you. It is totally worth it - and I only made it 3 hours before caving into that wonderful smell drifting throughout the flat. I wish I would have held out for the entire 6 hours, but it was getting late and we were getting hungry (I should have started 3 hours earlier). I've had a lot of different Bolognese sauces, but this is by far, hands-down, the best Bolognese sauce I've ever eaten.

I saw this recipe for the first time on The Dabble (you can find the original recipe with the link) and I knew I had to make this as soon as I had time. I only made a few small changes. This sauce is unbelievably good. It is smooth, comforting, and rich. Although it takes time, it is so easy! Just throw everything into a dutch oven and leave it to simmer. What's even better is that you can simmer this from just 1 hour to up to 6 hours. I will be making this sauce again very soon and I will be sure to start this earlier and let it go for the entire time recommended because if this sauce could get any better with a bit more time, I might just be eating this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner from now until the end of time.

Slow Simmered Bolognese Sauce
Adapted from The Dabble's Slow-SImmered, Meaty Goodness in Sauce Form: Bolognese
Makes 4 generous portions

1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 ribs of celery, diced
4 slices of bacon, thinly sliced
0.5 lbs ground beef
0.5 lbs pork and beef ground mix
*If you can't find mixed ground meat, use 0.25lbs ground pork and 0.25lbs ground beef (in addition to the 0.5lbs)
4 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup red wine
1 16oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon finely minced thyme
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons finely minced parsley
1/2 lb pasta such as linguine, spaghetti, or pappardelle
freshly grated Parmesan for serving

Gather all of the ingredients to get the sauce started.

Chop up all of the veggies. Then, get a dutch oven and heat the oil and butter over medium-high heat.

Add the veggies to the dutch oven and sautee over medium-high heat until the veggies start to soften (about 5-8 minutes).

While the vegetables are cooking, slice the bacon and get the ground meat ready to add to the dutch oven.

Once the vegetables begin to soften, add all of the meat and brown it, while breaking it up. Once it's browned, season it with salt and pepper. Add the tomato paste to bind everything together into a thick paste. Cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with the red wine and allow to simmer until the wine has reduced by half.

Add the crushed tomatoes, water, and minced thyme. Stir everything to combine and bring to a simmer (it will be quite watery). Once it is simmering, reduce the heat to low/medium-low and simmer covered for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

After the first simmering time, uncover the sauce (and it smells amazing, by the way). The sauce will have become thicker and the meat will have broken down quite a bit to be really nice and tender. Stir it around and you can adjust the seasoning.

Add the heavy cream and stir to combine. You could actually stop here, add the parsley and serve, but I would really recommend letting this simmer for at least one hour longer. Cover the dutch oven again and let simmer up to 5 hours.

When you've finished simmering the sauce, have some salted water boiling and start cooking your pasta. While the pasta is cooking chop up the parsley and add it to the sauce, reserving some for garnish. Adjust the seasoning for a final time and drain the pasta once it's al dente. *Quite a bit of fat had made its way to the top of the sauce and I actually spooned off a lot of the fat before adding the parsley.