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Today I'm making a vegetarian bolognese.
A traditional bolognese is a thick meat-based sauce
that's served over pasta.
But instead of pasta I'm going to serve it over spaghetti squash.
So, once this is cooked and it's removed from the shell,
it'll look just like spaghetti.
I'll show you how a little bit later.
So, going with vegetarian we're using a protein substitute that we call crumbles,
both beef and sausage crumbles.
This is actually a soy-based product made with wheat and barely,
and the wheat and barley give it that texture that resembles meat a little bit.
There also foods you feel good about, which means they're free of artificial
color, flavors, and preservatives.
Okay, first off, in goes the basting oil about a quarter cup into our stock pot.
By the way the heat is already preheated on medium-high.
Then we have four cloves of minced garlic.
And that's going to begin to sizzle just about now.
Perfect.
And then one package of mirepoix.
And mirepoix is a combination of carrots, celery, and onions.
And really what this is doing is going to build a flavor base for this dish.
So, we're going to let that cook for about 20 minutes.
I want to reduce the heat to about medium-low because we want
to cook it until the veggies are nice and soft, but not brown.
Okay, the mirepoix is just about where I want it.
It's nice and soft at this point, so I'm adding in the tomato paste.
This is going to thicken the sauce.
Add a real rich tomatoey flavor to it along with a few bay leaves.
Three or four small to medium bay leaves.
And then we're going to stir this for a few minutes.
Make sure that that's well incorporated into the mirepoix.
There we go.
And then let that cook for a couple minutes.
And once that's all blended in well, we're adding about a cup of red wine.
Remember, a nice dry red wine.
Something that you would drink.
You want a good red wine in there.
And then blend that together.
We're going to increase this temperature just a little bit,
so that that comes to a simmer.
And let that cook, stirring it occasionally for about five minutes.
Alright, it's time to add the beef and the sausage crumbles.
So, in they go.
Along with the oregano and three cans of tomatoes.
One...two...three.
And finally we have a cup of water to add to this as well.
Alright.
So, since we have a nice full pot going here,
we want to gently give that a stir,
so that we incorporate all those ingredients together.
Bring that to a simmer and then let that simmer, just let it go,
stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes.
Mmm, this has been simmering for about 30 minutes.
It is ready.
It smells wonderful.
Now, we're just going to add the finishing touch.
About three tablespoons of extra *** olive oil.
And that just releases the aroma of the olive oil when you add it
to something that's hot like that already.
And then we have some minced basil and parsley.
Let's stir that in a little bit too.
And we are done.
We're ready to eat.
So, let's ladle some of this onto our spaghetti squash rather than pasta.
And if you want to find out how to cook spaghetti squash
I have a video on how to do that, so check out wegmans.com.
So, a little bit of sauce on top of that and then finally just a nice sprinkling,
a dusting of reggiano parmigiano cheese,
or not if you prefer not to have it that way, but I like it that way.
So, there you go.
Vegetarian bolognese.
I think you'll really enjoy this nice change of pace.