This sauce is an adaption of Joan's recipe that I have made to suit the tastes of children that do not like a chunky sauce. It has two parts separated by assembly and maturing time.
1/2 pound of ground pork
1/2 pound of ground beef
2 Italian sausages, cooked and chopped [optional]
1 large white onion [or 3 shallots], diced fine
1 medium sized carrot, peeled and diced fine
1/2 a red pepper diced fine
4 cloves of minced garlic
4 tins of chopped plum tomatoes
1 cup of hot chicken or beef stock [to bulk up liquid]
2 tbsp
tomato paste
Small handful of caster sugar [to taste]
2 tsp salt [or to taste]
3 bay leaves [optional]
1 tsp ground
cloves
2 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp basil
a pinch of ground cloves
2 tbsp roasted and ground fennel *
2 cups red
wine
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
*Optional:
Pour fennel seeds into a hot dry pan and agitate while they darken and toast then grind using a mortar and pestle
1 cup of chopped and fried mushrooms
[ NOTE: this may add moisture you may not need to add with wine or stock]
Instructions:
Part One:
Brown meat in a pot and drain away the oil and water by putting
it in a sieve over a bowl.
Put the meat in another bowl and pour a cup of wine on it. Let rest.
Now, in the pot you cooked the meat in, put in the chopped onion, red pepper, carrots and the
olive oil and cook until clear. Add the chopped tomatoes, garlic and spices to the pot. Simmer for 20min with lid on.
Part Two:
Remove lid.
Blitz the sauce with a hand blender and let reduce for as long as possible allowing sauce to thicken.
Add sausage, and the meat mixture.
Add tomato paste to thicken.
Mix in the wine [if you didn't add it to the meat] and simmer ensuring the alcohol has burned off. This will darken the sauce to an appealing colour and help enhance and combine the flavours.
Simmer sauce on low heat
for as long as you can, making sure it does not burn or dry out.
Boil pasta.
Pour sauce over any pasta dish and watch how fast it disappears off your
guest's plates! Enjoy!
