Spirals with a Quick and Simple Meat Sauce

Last night, I decided to try one of Hazan's meat dishes.  Why not start with his simple meat sauce?  There was a good reason not to.  It is much too simple, basically throwing together meat and onions and tomatoes.  Certainly, I have made better sauces, myself.
I wanted to make something from Hazan, though, in keeping with the group's theme.  I looked up recipes from Hazan online and found this classic bolognese meat sauce which adds milk to the sauce.  Since, I can't use dairy milk, I subbed in Rice milk and made a sauce with some taste to it with added carrots, celery and onions, a little nutmeg and it used canned tomatoes instead of the fresh, he uses in this thirty minute book.  I ended up using both fresh and canned so I would have enough.

This is the recipe, I adapted.  It won't link up.  Computers or Blogger can can stubborn.

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/bolognese_sauce.html

Ingredients                  

• 2 small yellow onions, finely chopped
               
• 4 small or 2 large carrots, cut into 1/4-inch dice
               
• 1 stalks celery, cut into 1/4-inch diced       

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
               
• 1 pound lean ground turkey
               
• 1 teaspoon salt
               
• 1 cups dry white wine
             
• 1 cups Rice Milk
               
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
              
• 2 28-ounce cans plus one 14-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes plus 2 fresh tomatoes
                      
•  1 teaspoon sweet chili sauce  
         

Preparation:   

 

Put onions, carrots, celery, and oil in a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven and place over medium-high  heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are lightly  browned, 8 to 15 minutes.

           

Add ground turkey and break it up with a wooden spoon. Season with salt and continue
stirring until the meat has lost its red color, about 4 minutes.

           

Add wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until it has almost completely evaporated, 18 to 25
minutes. Add milk and nutmeg and cook, stirring occasionally, until the
milk has mostly evaporated, 12 to 18 minutes.

Coarsely chop tomatoes and add them and their juice to the pot. Once the tomatoes have started
bubbling, reduce the heat to low so that the sauce is barely simmering.

Cook uncovered for 4 hours, stirring occasionally. If all the liquid evaporates before the cooking time is up, add water 1/2 cup at a time as  needed.

After 4 hours, make sure all the liquid has evaporated before you remove the sauce from the heat. Blot or skim any fat from the surface before serving.
         

This recipe was a great success.  Both hubby and I like it.  With the added vegetables and a teaspoon of sweet chili sauce, it had the necessary flavor.  I would add more sweet chili sauce, next time.


I have decided that this book is too simplified and the recipes duplicate each other.  There is lots of room for creativity but that would probably take more than the thirty minute limit for the recipes.  I love Hazan's regular recipes with more oomph to them and I am going to see if I can find more of them online.  I don't need another cookbook although, I would love to have another of his.  I enjoy how he explains his cooking.  I think he is good and if you want to turn the recipes, into your own, you can do it but it will be your recipe, not his.

Check out his combinations, though.  He has a pasta with melon and another with carrot sauce and of course, with squash.  They are creative and interesting. 

I am not rejecting the book and certainly not Hazan.  I have the wrong book for me and that is totally personal.