Alternative:Bolognese Sauce

| Cuisine of The United States | Italian-American Cuisine 

Alternative:Bolognese Sauce
Category:	Sauce recipes
Servings:	4
Time:	1 hour, 45 minutes
Difficulty:

Bolognese Sauce, not to be confused with ragù alla bolognese, is a meat sauce that traditionally accompanies pasta (casually spaghettini, rotini, shells, etc.) in North American cuisine.

The recipe presented here is an example, both in ingredients and technique, of what could be served as spaghetti bolognese or spaghetti with meat sauce at the table and in restaurants in North America.

Ingredients

1.5 lb. of lean ground beef

2 large egg whites

1 28 oz. can of stewed San Marzano or Roma (Italian) tomatoes

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

6 cloves of garlic, peeled

2 tbsp. olive oil

Rubbed bay leaves, rubbed oregano, salt.

Procedure

1. Put a thick-bottomed pot over a medium-low heat with the oil and garlic.
2. As the pot warms up mix the beef and egg whites until they have a paste consistency.
3. Stir the garlic cloves in the oil until you can begin to smell them and blisters begin to form.
4. Add the meat to the pot and cook until the juices have evaporated, breaking clusters into very fine pieces.
5. Add the tomato paste and stir before adding the stewed tomatoes.
6. Cover the pot creating a vent and simmer at low heat for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat and retrieve the garlic cloves; you can either mash or discard them.
8. Add about a large pinch of rubbed bay leaves, two of oregano and salt, to taste.
9. Cover completely and let rest for half an hour, during which time you may cook pasta.

Notes

• The meat and eggs are best handled at room temperature as the mixture forms finer clusters while cooking.
• The stem-part of the tomatoes can be pinched out, to break the tomato apart without crushing it.
• You can set a wooden spoon transversely onto the pot before setting the lid on it to allow evaporation and prevent splatter.
• Salt is optional if you add the sauce to pasta cooked in salt water.