Spaghetti a la Bolognese

Instead of going out for cocktails or a wine tasting on a Friday night, sometimes my husband and I like to stay home. This gives me an opportunity to create recipes I found on the internet and test them on my husband! Since I'm an avid reader of Simply Recipes, I saw a Quick Bolognese Sauce recipe. I also found a Simple Bolognese recipe from Giada De Laurentiis, who has her own show on the Food Network. And since I usually like to experiment myself, I combined both recipes, more or less, and came up with a pretty good tasting bolognese sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 pounds ground chuck beef
• 3/4 cup medium-bodied wine, such as Chianti
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 to 1 cup low sodium chicken broth (if necessary)**
• 4 fresh basil leaves, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
• 2 pounds cooked spaghetti

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onion and cook until transluscent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic; saute for another minute. Add the bay leaf, celery and carrot and saute for 5 minutes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 5 minutes.
2. Raise heat to high and add the ground beef. Saute, stirring frequently and breaking up any large lumps and cook until meat is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Stir in the wine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in tomatoes; cook until flavors come together, about 40 minutes. **If sauce gets too thick, add low sodium chicken broth 1/4 cup at a time until desired consistancy is achieved.
3. Lastly, add the basil leaves, salt (if necessary) and black pepper and cook an additional 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf before serving and finish bolognese with Pecorino Romano.

Serves 8 hungry Hobbits or 6 humanoids.