Simple Summer Bolognese

After two of the warmest days Brooklyn has seen in a long time Mother Nature decided to toy with our emotions and give us a quick reality check with a cloudy cold 60 degree day. So after spending the day baking cookies and catching up with my best friend who I have not seen enough of this year, I rushed home and accepted the mission of trying to cook myself dinner from start to finish with only 45 minutes before my house was taken over by the real yoga moms of Bergen Street. So with ten dollars to go grocery shopping and a pantry full of any canned tomato product you can imagine I decided a quick and easy bolognese sauce was perfect for this chilly summer evening.

Bolognese Recipe:

1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
2 cloves of garlic - minced
1 yellow onion - diced
2 ounce white wine
1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Heat a large sauté pan and add the ground meats and brown till cooking and broken up. Remove meat from pan but keep fat that has rendered from meat. Begin to sauté onions and garlic till onion is translucent. deglaze the pan with white wine of your choice. Then add the crushed tomatoes, herbs and return the meat to the pan. Add the tomato paste and simmer sauce till it reaches desired thickness. Serve over favorite type of pasta.

As I waited for my pasta to finish cooking, the yoga moms began to arrive and I hurried to spoon my sauce over a bowl of rigatoni and escape upstairs to relax and enjoy the taste of accomplishment. I had done it, a homemade meal and a decently clean kitchen in just 45 minutes. Now I wouldn't say I'm anywhere close to being able to compete on chopped or anything but I would say that it was a job well done. So till next time,
keep cooking Brooklyn!