Monday, October 26, 2009

Best Bolognese Rigatoni

When I was travelling in Barcelona, eating out at all the tapas bars and filling up on paella soon took its toll on me and I was craving some comfort food. We went to this restaurant where I ate the most delicious Bolognese sauce ever. I tried to duplicate the recipe at home from memory and it was pretty spot on. This is possibly the best Bolognese sauce I've ever had (even though it didn't photograph too nicely).



Ingredients
1 onion finely diced
1 carrot finely diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 lb lean ground beef
4 slices bacon chopped
1 bay leaf
1 small can tomato paste (about 4-5 tbsp)
1 can condensed beef broth
Red wine (pour two glasses then use the rest for cooking - about 2 cups)
Cooked Rigatoni pasta

Directions
In a saucepan, brown the ground beef until very brown and dry. Then add beef broth and keep on a medium simmer.
Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook bacon until crispy. Drain some fat off from the bacon and cook onions, carrot and garlic until soft.
Add red wine to skillet and allow liquid to reduce by half to concentrate the flavour. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour contents of skillet into saucepan with ground beef and broth.
Add tomato paste and bay leaf and simmer on low for as long as you can wait. (I lasted 30 mins before getting really hungry)
Toss with rigatoni pasta and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.

No comments: