HIGH COUNTRY PORK AND BEEF BOLOGNESE

3 tbps butter
½ large sweet onion
1 carrot chopped fine
1 rib celery de-stringed and chopped fine
2 cloves garlic minced
1 jar (28 oz) quality pasta sauce, preferably garlic and olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
2 cups dry white wine
1 can (14 oz) whole tomatoes
1 tsp thyme
3-5 artichoke bottoms (crowns)
1/3 cup turbinado sugar
1 tsp baking soda
5 sprigs fresh basil
1 cube Knorr’s Chicken Bouillon or 1 tsp Better than Bouillon Chicken Base.

(1) Form pork and beef into patties, grill rare over outdoor grill, when no longer hot squeeze out fat with towel, crumble, and set aside. (2) Cut off fibrous knobs on convex sides of artichoke bottoms. (3) Liquefy in blender pasta sauce, artichoke bottoms, tomatoes, basil leaves. Set aside. (4) Heat butter in Dutch oven until foaming. (5) Add onion, carrot, and celery and cook on medium until softened, 6-7 minutes. (6) Add 1 cup liquefied melange and cook about a minute. (7) Add milk and bring to vigorous simmer for about 10-12 minutes until milk evaporates leaving clear fat. (8) Add rest of liquefied melange and cook on medium for about 1 minute. (9) Add crumbled meat and cook about 5 minutes. (10) Add wine, thyme, soda, sugar, and chicken bouillon and bring to boil. (11) Dump in slow cooker, cover, bring to boil and then turn to high simmer. (12) Simmer on high for 7-8 hours uncovered until melange is thick. Stir now and then. (13) Serve with grated Parmesan cheese atop melange.

This pot is fun to watch even though it doesn’t boil. Gretchen who can be trusted in these matters told me this is the best spaghetti sauce she’d ever tasted. It can be frozen and hauled out for emergency, unforeseen dinners, or anticipated dinners. While reducing, a delightful aroma, best accompanied by a glass of wine, floats through the house, setting up one’s appetite for dinner.

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D.