Venison Bolognese

I'm posting this from Terminal Five at JFK - with free wifi courtesy of Jetblue. We'll have some interesting restaurant reviews from NYC coming up. A Four word teaser: truffles. Gruyere. bacon. hot dogs.

But for now...This is an Anne Burrell recipe for a 5 hour bolognese. The time put into it is well worth it, but a word of caution - go light on the salt. Because you add it in several times, you need not be as liberal with it as she makes it out in the show.

Ingredients:

3 ribs of celery – 1 inch chop
2 large carrots – ½ inch dice
2 onions of 1 LARGE onion – chopped
4 cloves of garlic
Olive Oil
Salt
3 pounds ground meat (I used ground venison and a venison sausage in equal parts, but you can play with various meats and cuts.)
2 cups of tomato paste
3 cups hearty red wine
3 Bay leaves
1 bundle of Thyme (I used one rosemary sprig)

Directions:

Puree veggies in a food processor into a smooth paste.

Place into a large pan with olive oil and bring pan to a medium high heat and season liberally with salt. You’re trying to brown the veggie mixture, and get out all of the water. Stir occasionally, this will take about 15-20 minutes. Don’t skimp here because this is where flavor comes in. As Anne says “browned food tastes good.”

Add your ground meat choice, season again with salt and stir to combine. Like the veggies, let it get good and brown. Give this step another 15-20 minutes for the flavors to come out.

Stir in tomato paste, stir to combine and let brown, 4-5 minutes.

Stir in the Wine. 3 cups is almost a full 750 ml bottle, so go ahead and add the entire bottle.
Let the wine mixture reduce by half – or about 10 minutes of a high simmer.

Add in bay leaves and Thyme.

Cover mixture with water, so that water is 1 inch above meat . Let simmer for 3 ½ to 4 hours, adding water, about 2-3 cups at a time as it cooks out.