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PASTA
ZIA’s Vegetarian Bolognese
by Lucia Mudd
Olive oil, butter, carrots, onion, celery, mushrooms, vegetable bouillon (mushroom if possible), white wine, whole nutmeg, whole cloves, Gardein beefless ground, San Marzano crushed tomatoes (or Hunt’s petite diced), heavy cream, lots of fresh parmigian’.
I’m not too good at amounts but basically: using a large open pan…
Slowly sauté a medium/large finely chopped onion, 5 chopped carrots and a stalk of chopped celery in some olive oil and butter. Salt and pepper.
When onion mixture just begins to brown (this always takes longer than they say) add the Gardein beefless ground, about 2/3rds of the package.
Meanwhile clean and chop well a mess of mushrooms…about 1/2 to 2/3rd pound. Plain old white mushrooms are great. If you see some baby bellas, they are great too. Any mixture of mushrooms is good.
When the meatless ground is slightly browned, add the mushrooms. They will release a lot of broth liquid which is great. Continue to simmer all together for, say another 10 15 minutes.
At this point I would add about 1 cup of white wine and a cup of vegetable bouillon (if you can find a mushroom bouillon, great.)
Let that simmer a bit. Then add a large tin of crushed tomatoes, San Marzano brand if you have it there. Or Hunt’s diced (which needs to be crushed a bit more with an immersible blender, but has great flavor). Then the spices: get whole nutmeg and grate in about a teaspoon, drop in 4 whole cloves, salt and pepper. Let that simmer about 45 minutes or so.
Then add some cream, about 1/2 to 2/3rds cup, and continue simmering until all is well married. It takes a while…slowly slowly…another hour, hour and a half. Taste for salt, pepper, nutmeg, cloves and add more until the flavor is right. As it cooks, look at it. You can add water to loosen a bit if it is too thick.
Serve with lots of freshly grated parmigiana!
