“This is a sauce you start making on Sunday morning and leave it to cook in order to be ready in time for Sunday lunch”, says Linda, our contributor for today’s recipe. “I love to eat this with an Italian table red, like the Barone Rosso from Fantinel.”
This classic pasta sauce is made even more delicious with the addition of smoked bacon, which should be thinly sliced and of excellent quality. Ensure that you choose a mixed mince from your local butcher that includes both pork and beef (we prefer a top-side, pork mix). And of, course, allow for a long period of cooking time on a low heat so that the flavours can slowly amalgamate and soften. Enjoy!
Serves 4
- 2 cans chopped tomatoes
- 2 carrots, peeled
- 2 celery sticks
- 1 packet of smoked bacon
- 2 brown onions
- 50g butter
- Olive oil
- 500g excellent quality mixed mince (top-side beef and pork)
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 cup beef stock
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- Origanum
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 500g pasta (small tubes or egg tagliatelle work well)
- Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese
Method:
Chop the bacon, onion, carrots and celery into squares.
Place carrots, celery, bacon bits, splash of olive oil and butter into a heavy pot on a low-medium heat and cook with the lid off for 30 minutes.
Add the mince and turn the heat up high to fry.
Once the meat is crisping, stir in the white wine and wait a few minutes for most of it to evaporate.
Now add the stock, tomato paste, tomato cans, origanum and salt and pepper. Stir well and reduce the heat to medium. Cook with the lid on for 1.5 hours.
Cook pasta according to packet instructions once the sauce is ready. Then pour the liquid part of the sauce into the pasta first to reduce sticking, stir, and then add the rest of the sauce.
Divide into bowls and grate over a generous portion of parmesan cheese. Serve with a delicious red Italian table wine.
Adriatic Italian Food 
