Pasta Bolognese

This version of Bolognese has a little sweetness from red wine and some heavy cream added for a rich, but subtle, creaminess--the way my son, Stevie, likes it! It makes a lot... serves 12! It freezes well so if you're not serving 12, plan to put a batch or two in the freezer for a night that you don't have time to cook from scratch. You can also cut the recipe in half, but why go to all that chopping for one meal when you can make two or three out of it! I just served this for a party. I made it the day before and then heated it up the next day, several hours before the party, in my crock pot. If you do that, don't add in the cream, butter and cheese on the day you make it. Add those ingredients in after you have reheated the sauce good and hot and just about 1/2 hour before serving. Enjoy!

1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground veal
(or instead of the above three ingredients, use 3 lbs. of beef/pork/veal for meatloaf blend)
1/2 pound bacon slices, diced small
2 medium onions, chopped small
3-4 ribs celery, chopped small
3-4 carrots, chopped small
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups dry red wine (or beef broth if you don't cook with wine)
2 28-oz. cans crushed tomatoes
1 15-oz. can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 cup water
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. Kosher salt (or more to taste)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
a pinch of: cumin, nutmeg, black pepper
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 - 1 cup Pecorino Romano cheese

In Dutch Oven or large, heavy-bottomed pot, cook the beef, pork, veal, bacon, onions, celery, carrots over medium heat until meat is cooked. Pour most of the liquid off. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add wine and cook for 5 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, bay leaves, sugar and seasonings. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 2 hours, stirring now and then.

Discard bay leaves. Add the cream and butter. Stir to combine and cook a few minutes. Stir in cheese. Serve over your favorite pasta! This is enough sauce to serve over 3 pounds of pasta.

Serve with Pecorino Romano on table... and nice crusty bread!

Go-To Pasta

Well, for my first recipe, this is what my kids call my Go-To Pasta. They all love this dish. The bigger the quantity made, the better the flavor! I will post the recipe for one batch. Check out the notes below  for making a big batch!  Enjoy . . .

Base Recipe
1 lb. penne pasta
1 regular-sized pkg. boneless chicken breasts
1 small jar julienned sun-dried tomatoes in oil with herbs (Produce section at Wegmans)
3-4 cloves chopped garlic
1 cup white wine
2 cups heavy cream or half and half
Pecorino Romano Cheese - handful
Pepper
Salt
Wegmans Pan Searing flour
Olive Oil
1/2 stick butter

Prepare chicken: Cut each breast, thin, cutlet-style into 2 or 3 very thin cutlets, depending on the thickness of each piece of chicken. Cut the thin cutlets into 4 bite-sized pieces. Dip chicken pieces (or shake in a gallon-size ziploc) lightly with the pan-searing flour and coat each piece.

Cover the bottom of a large, heavy frying pan with a thin coating of olive oil and begin to heat the pan on high. Add butter to pan. When butter melts and pan is hot, add flour-coated chicken pieces and brown chicken pieces on both sides. Do in batches if you need. Add a little more oil if needed. Don't burn. Once browned, remove chicken, set aside and keep warm. Turn pan down to med-high if it gets too hot. Add chopped garlic and saute just briefly (do not brown garlic). Add in jar of sun-dried tomatoes with some of the seasoned oil in the jar (you can also use chopped, fresh tomatoes or a can of drained diced tomatoes instead of sun-dried). Let pan get hot. Pour white wine into pan and deglaze, stirring so all the browned bits are removed from the bottom. Turn down heat and let simmer 'til reduced by 1/3 and alcohol is cooked off. Add chicken back to pan and simmer on med/low 'til chicken is tender. Slowly add heavy cream/half and half and let heat. Sauce will thicken as it heats/simmers. Add in handful of Pecorino Romano Cheese and sprinkle with pepper. Add salt to taste. It takes a fair amount of salt to bring out the flavors so taste it as you add salt.

Meanwhile, boil salted water and cook your pound of penne pasta al dente. Drain pasta (do NOT rinse). Mix together hot pasta and chicken sauce. Sprinkle with Pecorino Romano cheese. Serves 5

NOTES:
For large batch to serve 30: 
2 big packs of boneless chicken breasts, cutlet and cut into small pieces
1 jar pan-searing flour
Several sticks butterOlive/Canola Oil
4-5 lbs. penne
4 cups/1 bottle white wine
1/2 gallon heavy cream/half and half
1 bulb garlic, chopped
1 large jar sundried tomatoes, julienned

Serves 30-35