Bolognese

Another Barbara Lynch recipe here. She said that her secret ingredient was chicken livers and I really wanted to test it out. It's a great, hearty sauce. It's very meaty and not very tomatoey, so different than what I would normally think of for bolognese, but it was so flavorful and rich and a perfect Sunday dinner with a little pasta and some Pecorino.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large celery stalk, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
5 oz chicken livers, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh sage, chopped
salt and pepper
1 1/2 pounds ground meat, 1/2lb each pork, veal, and lamb (or beef if you can't find lamb)
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 14.5-oz can chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven and add onion, celery, and carrot. Saute until soft, about 8-10 minutes.

Add chicken livers and sage and season with a little salt and pepper. Cook until they lose their red color, 2-3 minutes. Add the ground meat in batches, letting it brown a little before adding more.

Season with salt and pepper, stirring until no red remains. Add the wine and increase the heat to high and boil, stirring to break up any clumps of meat, until the wine is almost gone, 10-15 minutes.

Add the broth, tomatoes, and basil and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a gentle simmer. (You should see an occasional bubble but not a boil.)

Cook, uncovered, until the sauce is thick, dark, and rich - at least an hour, more is better.

Serve over pasta topped with freshly ground black pepper and grated Parmesan or Pecorino.

I used my extruder to make fresh rigatoni. Yum!!