A delicious and healthy version of a classic meaty bolognese sauce that doesn't take all day to cook! You can riff on this recipe to your taste, but we really like this one packed with meat, lots of veggies, and flavor. Both the SoMoved Bolognese Sauce recipe on its own, and one along with the spaghetti squash (Spaghetti Squash Bolognese) are up on MyFitnessPal, so you can track even if you're having the sauce with something else. Cook, enjoy, and share!
Serving Size: The Bolognese recipe makes 9 (10-ounce) servings. (The full recipe adds 9 (5-oz servings of spaghetti squash).
Macronutrient Balance:
Spaghetti Squash Bolognese: 23g Protein / 11g Fat / 21g Carbs (279 calories) per 15 oz serving.
Bolognese Sauce Only: 22g Protein / 10g Fat / 11g Carbs (235 calories) per 10 oz serving.
Ingredients:
2 lbs Grass Fed Organic Ground Beef
26.5 oz Diced San Marzano Tomatoes
6 oz Tomato Paste
1 medium Yellow Onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
8 oz White Button Mushrooms
6 oz. Pitted Black Olives, quartered or sliced
5 oz Raw Baby Spinach
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes (if you don't like a spicy sauce - leave this out)
1 tsp Coarse Kosher Salt
Black Pepper to Taste
2 Tbsp Fresh Basil
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3-4 Spaghetti Squash
Instructions:
For the Bolognese:
In a large sauce-pan, heat olive oil on medium heat and add onion and garlic, sauté for about 2 mins.
Add mushrooms to mixture and sauté for another minute. Then push all to the side of pan. (if you don't have a very large sauce pan, do step 1 and 2 in smaller pan then add to beef below.
Add ground beef over primary part of heat in pan and cook until mostly brown.
Add the diced tomatoes and combine all above into sauce.
Stir in red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper seasonings (can play around with other spices here to your taste!)
Add tomato paste and stir in completely (thickens the sauce).
Simmer over medium/med-low heat and cover, stop and stir each minute for about 8-10 minutes.
Stir in the olives and fold the spinach into the sauce (a third of it at a time) to allow the sauce to cook the spinach down.
Add the basil last to retain it's flavor, and even top your sauce with some uncooked basil to finish!
For the Spaghetti Squash:
We used a serious hack for cooking spaghetti squash. You can roast it in the oven with olive oil, and it can be delicious and caramelized, but here's the quick way and we added NOTHING to it except the delicious sauce.
Slice each Spaghetti Squash in half lengthwise, and remove seeds
Put two halves in the microwave, cut-side up for about 9 minutes (smaller squash may take a minute or two less).
Remove from microwave and allow to cool so you can handle it. Use a fork to scrape out the spaghetti-like squash into your bowl and top with the bolognese!