Easy Bolognese Sauce

Preparation time: 15 minutes; Cooking time: 2 hours; Makes: about 4 cups

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 celery stalk, strings removed and finely chopped
• 1 small carrot finely chopped ( 1 cup chopped)
• 1/2-1 teaspoon chilli flakes (optional)
• 500g (1 pound) lean ground beef
• ¾ cup good quality dry red wine
• 1 X 796ml (28 fl. oz) can whole Italian tomatoes, chopped or roughly blended 
• ¾ cup strained Italian tomatoes (passata)
• ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ cup stock (broth) or water and bouillon cube
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• A handfull finely chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a medium pot and add the onions, celery, carrots, chilli flakes and a little salt to taste and and sweat the vegetables over medium low heat for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time.
2. Add the ground beef and cook over medium-high heat, until no longer pink and most of the water is evaporated. Add the wine and cook for 5-8  minutes, uncovered, until the wine is absorbed.
3. Add the the whole and strained tomatoes, nutmeg, stock or water, salt to taste and bring to the boil and simmer, covered, over low heat, for 1-1½ hours, stirring from time to time. Top with the parsley before serving.

Points to Note

You can use  1.5kg/3Ib peeled and chopped fresh tomatoes for this recipe.

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