Cooking recipes on “Bake to the roots”? Some of you will be quite surprised I guess – the recipes you normally find on here are all for baked goods ;) Well… not too long ago I asked (on Instagram) if you’d like to see some cooking recipes here from time to time. To my surprise there was quite a lot of interest – so from now on you’ll get something cooked too on here, not only cakes and such. Let’s start with “The World’s Best Bolognese Sauce” – if you wanna do something, do it right ;P

The current situation with all that “social distancing” has thrown pretty much everybody off track, I assume – some more, some less. I am working mostly from home since end of last year, so all of that “stay at home” did not change much for me. My kitchen has been my office for quite some time already ;) The only thing that is unusual right now – I have a new colleague in my “office”. By bf is not allowed to go to his regular office, so I have to share my office space right now. Luckily, our coffee machine is able to handle all the extra work :P
So staying home and work from my kitchen is not a problem for me. I am having problems getting hold of certain baking ingredients though. Flour, yeast, etc. are not that easy to organize but I could adapt and use other things to bake… challenging but not impossible. My real problem, however, would be the results of my baking. Normally I feed everything to friends and colleagues of my bf. Basically 99% of all my baked goods end u with those people. Now I am not allowed to meet anybody, so there is no chance of feeding the masses with my cakes. Unfortunately, I can’t eat most of the stuff I am baking because of my problem with sugar/carbs and it seems my bf starts to refuse to take a second, third, fourth or fifth slice of cake these days ;P
Well… since I can’t bake that much I decided to cook more often. I’ve been planning to add some cooking recipes to the blog for quite some time anyway – just to ditch the sweet stuff from time to time. It seems the current situation has made it easier for me to work on that task and has been speeding up things quite a bit ;)


So what will happen here with those cooking recipes? Dunno yet. I wrote down some recipes we like to cook a lot here in our house. Basics and simple dishes. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel with these recipes I guess ;) But people that tried my dishes liked them a lot and maybe you like some of them too… who knows, right?!
The first recipe I want to share with you is the “World’s Best” Bolognese Sauce. I assume everyone thinks that his/her bolognese sauce is the best one in the world ;) Anyway. The recipe is quite basic – a bit more sophisticated than bolognese made with a sauce mix or plain ground beef cooked with tomato ketchup I guess, but still quite simple. It’s a classic sauce recipe with celery and carrots – if you haven’t tried that so far you should definitely give it a chance. Adds so much flavor! And if you haven’t created your own “world’s best” bolo, you can definitely try this one here. With all the time you spend at home right now you can easily make a pasta sauce that takes four hours to finish ;P
INGREDIENTS / ZUTATEN
2-3 tbsp. good olive oil
18 oz. (500g) ground beef (20% fat)
3.5 oz (100g) bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 cup (240ml) dry red wine
14 oz. (400g) tomatoes, diced
1 1/2 cups (360ml) chicken stock (plus more if needed)
1 cup (240ml) whole milk
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 bay leaves
pinch of nutmeg
salt, pepper
2-3 tbsp. grated Parmesan
2-3 EL gutes Olivenöl
500g Hackfleisch (ca. 20% Fettanteil)
100g Speck, gewürfelt
1 mittelgroße Zwiebel, fein gewürfelt
2 Knoblauchzehen, fein gewürfelt
1 Stangensellerie, fein gewürfelt
1 Karotte, fein gewürfelt
2 EL Tomatenmark
240ml Rotwein
400g gestückelte Tomaten
360ml Hühnerbrühe (ggf. etwas mehr)
240ml Milch
2 TL Oregano, getrocknet
2 Lorbeerblätter
Prise Muskatnuss
Salz, Pfeffer
2-3 EL Parmesan, gerieben

DIRECTIONS / ZUBEREITUNG
2. Add the oil to a large pot and heat up. Add the ground beef to the pot and break into small clumps – make the clumps not too small at this point. Cook and stir until the beef is lightly browned – there will be some pink spots in the larger clumps but that is ok. Remove the beef from the pot and set aside. Add the diced bacon to the pot and cook until it releases some of its fat. Add the chopped onion, garlic, celery, and carrot. Cook until soft. Return the beef to the pot and stir until all is well combined. Add the tomato paste, stir and let cook for some time. Add the wine, stir and let cook over medium heat until the wine has evaporated almost completely. The meat should be broken into fine bits by now. Add the diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and milk. Add the dried oregano, bay leaves, and nutmeg. Season with some salt and pepper and let simmer over low heat for about 3 hours. If the sauce has reduced too much, add some more chicken stock. Before serving add the grated Parmesan and mix in. Season with some more salt and pepper if needed.
3. Cook some pasta (al dente) and serve with the Bolognese sauce and more grated Parmesan cheese. The sauce can be made several days in advance and stored in the fridge. Leftover sauce can be frozen.
2. Das Öl in einen großen Topf geben und erhitzen. Das Hackfleisch dazugeben und in größere Portionen zerteilen, aber nicht gleich komplett zerbröseln. Das Fleisch so lange anbraten, bis es leicht gebräunt ist. Wenn das Fleisch im Inneren der größeren Stücke noch etwas pink ist, dann ist das ok. Aus dem Topf nehmen und zur Seite stellen. Den gewürfelten Speck in den Topf geben und auslassen. Sobald der Speck kross und etwas gebräunt ist, die gewürfelten Zwiebeln, Knoblauch, Stangensellerie und Karotten dazugeben und mit anbraten, bis das Gemüse weich ist. Das Fleisch zurück in den Topf geben. Das Tomatenmark dazugeben, gut verrühren und kurz mit anbräunen. Den Wein zum Topf dazugeben, unterrühren und einkochen lassen. Die Flüssigkeiten sollten so gut wie komplett verkocht sein und das Fleisch in kleine Stücke zerfallen sein. Die Tomaten, Hühnerbrühe und Milch dazugeben und unterrühren. Den Oregano, die Lorbeerblätter und Muskatnuss dazugeben. Mit etwas Salz und Pfeffer würzen und dann für etwa 3 Stunden köcheln lassen. Sollte die Soße zu stark an Flüssigkeit verlieren, noch etwas Brühe dazugeben. Vor dem Servieren den Parmesan dazugeben und ggf. noch einmal mit Salz und Pfeffer abschmecken.
3. Die Pasta (al dente) kochen und mit der Bolognese Soße und noch etwas mehr Parmesan servieren. Die Soße kann einige Tage vorab zubereitet werden und im Kühlschrank gelagert werden. Reste kann man auch gut einfrieren.

Craving more? Keep in touch on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for new post updates and more. You can also contact me with any questions or inquiries!
Here is a version of the recipe you can print easily.
Print
The Best Bolognese Sauce *EVER*
- Prep Time: 00:30
- Cook Time: 03:30
- Total Time: 04:00
- Yield: 4
- Category: Cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Everybody thinks their bolognese sauce is the best… but they are all wrong. This is the best bolognese sauce *EVER* ;)
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Enjoy cooking!
Keywords: bolognese, sauce, pasta, Italian, noodles, basics
First of all, thank u for this amazing dish! I made it according to the recipe, but instead of letting it simmer for 3 hours on the stovetop, I put it in a slow cooker for about 5 hours, and it turned out great! Will definitely make it again.
Sending best regards! :)
The longer you cook this, the better it gets! :D
Cheers
Marc