battle of the bolognese, part 1

I've been craving some bolognese so I decided today was a good day to make it myself (for the first time). I remember watching Martha Stewart and she was featuring "30 Things Everyone Should Know." One of them was to make a bolognese sauce. 2-3 years later and I finally decide to try it.

I wasn't very interested in trying her recipe because I need to use my cookbooks more. So... I looked in The Silver Spoon and The Best Recipe (among a few other books). Both the recipes were so different that I couldn't decide. Should I attempt the recipe from the classic Italian cookbook or the recipe from one of the "be all end all" magazines, Cook's Illustrated? Well, I decided to try to cook both tonight. Hopefully, one has to turn out right.

I started with The Silver Spoon. Out of the two recipes, it was the least complicated and took the least amount of time.



You need 3 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped celery stalk, 1 chopped carrot, 9 ounces of ground beef, 1 tablespoon of concentrated tomato paste, and salt and pepper.



Heat the butter and olive oil in a pan. Add the onion, celery, carrot, and ground beef. Season with salt and pepper.



Mix well and cook over low heat for a few minutes until the vegetables soften and the meat browns.



Add the tomato paste (diluted with water) and mix well. Cover the pan and cook on low heat for 1 1/2 hours. You can add a little hot water if the sauce starts to dry out.



I decided to eat it with tagliatelle but you can also use timbales, fettuccini, or spaghetti noodles.



Here's the finished product. No, I do not usually garnish food that I cook but some green helps to make a prettier picture.





We enjoyed it for dinner tonight with some garlic bread. It was delicious. I think my husband liked it, too, because he had two helpings. I also made the recipe from The Best Recipe tonight but that will have to wait until tomorrow. It was still cooking when we were ready for dinner. The final verdict on the better bolognese to come.