I’ve always loved bolognese sauce by itself, especially if it’s on the chunkier and dry (less sauce) side so we’ve (actually the boyfriend) been making them quite frequently for dinner, but it wasn’t 100% of the way I like it until I started to make the dish myself. After a few attempts I finally managed to make it the way I like it and it turned out rather fabulous flavor and texture wise. I’m very happy that I learned what was the proper way of doing things and what not to do.

Ingredients Needed:
1 LB of Ground Beef
2/3 Bottle of an 24oz Prego Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce
7-8 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2 Yellow Onion, diced
1 Small Box of White or Brown Button Mushrooms, sliced

I originally would start the dish by cooking the meat first then dumping in the onion, garlic, and mushrooms onto the pan thinking the water and natural fat would help cook them faster, but I wrong. It ended up really mushy and soggy, especially when I added in the tomato sauce then the whole dish would just be overly wet. I finally went the opposite route, I minced my garlic, diced my onions and sliced my mushrooms. I placed them into a bowl and mixed them up by hand then cooked them up at high heat (means faster times, but make sure to keep your eye on them since they cook much faster, you don’t want it to burn). I cooked the garlic, onion and mushrooms until they were soft and slightly golden brown then put them in a bowl for later.

Dump in your ground meat and chop them up with your spatula into however big you like them to be. I prefer my meat on the chunkier side so I always light mash them rather then mincing them all the way into small pieces. Cook until mostly cooked with a little pink since you’ll be continuing to cook it later with the sauce. I drained the water and fat then placed in the garlic, onions and mushrooms and mixed it them added in the tomato sauce last. I let it sit for a few seconds then stirred it and because I only used 2/3 of the bottle it was on the lighter sauce side making the bolognese on the drier side (rather than saucy) just the way I like it.

The moment of truth, boyfriend came home right when I finished. I plated the bolognese and we taste tested it for dinner. He had his with rotini pasta and I had mine just by itself. It was delicious! The texture was just right with the lighter use of tomato sauce was perfect. Loved the garlic and onion flavor nuances gave the whole dish more complexity. It was so good and so proud of myself that I didn’t fail this time, I will definitely be keeping this recipe in my head for next time! 🙂