My favorite busy-day meal is without a doubt bolognese. On top of being delicious, it takes no time to make. It’s also one of my boyfriend’s favorite dishes so it always ends up being a win. If you have ever read my Pantry Essentials post then you should have most of these ingredients on hand after a busy day of being busy. After working a 12 hour shift I made this because I knew it would be a breeze so trust me you need this recipe in your life.

Just like any recipe, everyone makes this dish different. Real serious authentic Italian recipes usually include carrots, celery and onion but I choose to only add the celery and onion. I love carrots but I just don’t think they go good in this dish so I chose to leave it out but if you want carrots than by all means have your carrots. I would not say this is authentic at all, just the way I like it! Please use a good ground beef. Pretty please! It makes the dish so much better by spending an extra buck or two for a good quality ground beef like chuck or sirloin. I happened to get lucky with a good sale of $6.49 a pound for organic ground sirloin and I could totally taste the difference.

Just What You Need…

1 1/2 pound of ground beef, (90% lean) use a good ground beef for the best results. I used an organic ground sirloin*
1/2 cup heavy cream
1- 28oz can of petite diced tomatoes (UNSEASONED)
3/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
pasta of choice, I used spaghetti
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 cup beef stock OR red wine if you’re feeling fancy or have it on hand
1 celery stalk diced very small
3 tsp garlic (3 cloves)
1 tsp each of onion powder, salt, black pepper and dried basil leaves
3 tsp of olive oil

Directions

Cook your pasta of choice according to the box instructions.
While your pasta is cooking, get a large skillet. Heat your olive oil on medium high heat and saute your onion and celery until soft. Add your minced garlic, all your seasonings and the ground beef. Cook until the ground beef is fully cooked.
Reduce the heat to medium low and add your diced tomatoes and beef stock.
Once that mixture warms, add your heavy cream and bring the heat back up to medium high until it simmers. Once it simmers, return the heat back to medium low, with a lid and let it cook for 10 minutes.
Take off the heat completely and add your fresh parsley. Stir and garnish with more freshly parsley or cheese! I used pecorino-romano.