This past Monday, Nick and I hosted our foodie friend Doug for dinner and were pretty happy with the results. We thought and thought about what we wanted to make for this dinner. We wanted something impressive yet easy enough to prepare in just a couple hours. Doug had us over to his place just a few weeks ago and made a super yummy / impressive short ribs, risotto, oysters and brussels sprouts- holy yum {and insane cooking skills!} We hit up our local farmers market and got all the local ingredients we could and ended up going with this:
Appetizer:
baguette with fig spread, port salut cheese, baked for about 5 minutes.
Salad:
Mixed greens
dried cranberries
walnuts
goat cheese
balsamic vinaigrette
Main course: Bolognese
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
- 1 carrot, coarsely chopped
- 1 pound ground chuck beef
- 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
- 8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
Directions
In a large skillet heat the olive oil. When almost smoking, add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until the onions become very soft, about 8 minutes. Add the celery and carrot and saute for 5 minutes. 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. Add the tomatoes, parsley and basil and cook over medium low heat until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. This will take approximately 1/2 hour. Finish bolognese with Pecorino Romano.
