When you have all those extra tomatoes in the garden during the fall, a great way to use them up is to make a Bolognese sauce. It’s perfect on any kind of pasta.

So if you are longing for a nice simple dinner party with friends…Someone can bring the pasta, another the wine, someone can add a tossed salad, another can bring dressing for the salad, and someone can be in charge of garlic bread, and don’t forget dessert! It could be fresh fruit, cheesecake, tiramisu or cannolis.

Sip the wine, enjoy one another’s company and sit back and Mangia!

• 2 oz. Diced pancetta, finely chopped
• 1 Medium Spanish onion or yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 Stalk celery, finely chopped
• 1 Carrot, finely chopped
• 1clove garlic grated or finely chopped
• 4 Tblsp unsalted butter
• 11 oz Ground beef
• 4 oz Ground pork
• 4 oz Ground Italian sausage
• 1/8 tsp ground clove
• Dash of ground cinnamon
• 1tsp dried basil or 2 tablsp fresh, minced
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lb peeled and chopped tomatoes (or 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes, packed in water)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (this can be omitted for low salt diets)

Combine pancetta, onion, garlic, celery, and carrot in sauté pan with butter and cook over medium heat until onion turns pale gold.

Add the beef, pork, sausage to the vegetables and increase the heat to high; cook until browned. Sprinkle with the clove, cinnamon, and pepper.

Next, stir in tomatoes, bring to a simmer and reduce the heat to medium. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes. If you are using whole canned tomatoes, break them up prior to adding as you add them to the sauce. We prefer fresh tomatoes as it gives a much better flavor.

Add milk and season with sea salt. Then turn down the heat and simmer for 2 and 1/2 hours. Stir at least every 20 minutes. Whenever the sauce gets too dry and starts sticking to the pan, slowly add 1/4 cup of water, chicken or beef stock,(NOT bouillion!) or red wine, (I personally use red wine) scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

This recipe feeds 4 but you can make a double or larger batch and freeze for future use. Enjoy!

And before there are questions about garlic… The answer is: In Italy they don’t use half as much garlic as we do here in the United States. We have Americanized too many Italian dishes with garlic. A truly authentic Italian dish is not what we find in most Italian restaurants here in the US. Remembering that with garlic, less is better and in my opinion, doesn’t belongs in a bolognese sauce.

The Happy Cooker can be found at Simone’s at 59 Franklin Street in Ellsworth. Exceptional International Menu 207-667-1007 or www.simones.me