Letting Sous-Chef Take the Wheel

I do 99.99% of the cooking in my house. So, when the husband-slash-sous-chef decides that he's going to make a meal, my insides get all antsy. Generally, this situation requires lots of coaching, with me taking over somewhere between halfway and three-quarters of the way through.

Therefore, when he asked me - ohsocasually - this afternoon how hard it might be to make bolognese sauce, I may or may not have audibly groaned. But, against my better judgement, I decided to go along for the ride - it was a weekend evening, after all, and if nothing else we had plenty of time on hand.

He decided on a mushroom bolognese, which I was pleased about - good meaty flavor and texture, but heavy on the veg. A quick trip the grocery store and we were ready to roll. In the end, I must admit that he really did most of the cooking on his own, which left me free to document it all. And the results were outstanding... read on.

Start with reconstituting a half ounce of porcini mushrooms for thirty+ minutes in hot water. Once the mushrooms have regained their pliability, drain them in a paper towel lined colander. Reserve the steeped liquid.

Next, get to chopping... three to four cloves of garlic, an extra large onion, the porcini mushrooms, and two ten ounce cartons of cremini mushrooms.

Heat olive oil in a dutch oven. Get the onion in the pan, along with a half a pound of ground pork, a good pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Cook until the pork just starts to brown.

Add the mushrooms and garlic to the pan and cook about fifteen minutes, or until the liquid is almost gone.

Now, it's time for the liquids - two tablespoons of tomato paste, half a cup of dry white wine, the porcini liquid, and a can of whole peeled tomatoes (you may want to cut these up a bit with kitchen scissors). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about half an hour.

While you're letting the sauce cook, if you're anything like the husband-slash-sous-chef, you'll like to do things like check your email and play "circus" with the cat.

Once the sauce has cooked down a bit, stir in a quarter cup of milk. Turn the heat to low and let it hang out while you boil the pasta.

Finally, peel a bit of good parmesan cheese and chop some flat leaf parsley for garnish.

Pour a nice robust red, and serve up the pasta and sauce. Top with the cheese and parsley. Enjoy!

Here's the best part... while this recipe has several steps and the prep is probably a little longer than you'd prefer on a weeknight, it's actually very straightforward and can be prepared to perfection by nearly any spouse-slash-sous-chef. So, go for it... you won't be sorry. It's delicious.