Cooking pasta sauce with wine is a wonderful way of intensifying the flavour and stimulating our appetite. Luca and I love selecting red wine and having it on weekends. Last Saturday afternoon, I realised that I was feeling joyful and relaxed while my bolognese sauce was simmering. I then quickly wrote down my recipe.
My recipe is not exactly authentic Italian bolognese, but it’s easy to prepare and cook, and homemade sauce is always the best!
Allow 15 minutes for the prep and 30 minutes for cooking. I serve this red wine bolognese with rigatoni or tagliatelle, and it also goes well with mashed potatoes.
Ingredients (Serves 4–6)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 celery sticks, chopped
- 300g mushrooms, diced
- 400g minced beef
- 1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs
- 120ml red wine
- 430g tomato passata
- salt
- black pepper
- 20g butter
- 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated (you can mix any kind of cheese)
- pasta of your choice
- Parmesan cheese, grated, to serve
- parsley, chopped, to serve
Method
- Dice onion and mushrooms, and chop celery sticks. Peel and chop the garlic.
- Heat olive oil in a pan on medium-high heat, and sauté the garlic, onion, celery and mushrooms for 10 minutes.
- Add the minced beef and Italian herbs, and cook stirring for 4 minutes until browned. Add red wine, and bring it to a gentle sizzle for two minutes.
- Stir in the tomato passata and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Season it with salt and pepper.
- While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta of your choice.
- Add the butter and grated Parmesan to the bolognese sauce, and stir.
- Serve with the pasta, and sprinkle Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley over the sauce. Enjoy!
