Nicoise Sauce

For Italians, Bolognese is the king of meat sauces. It's a rich, dark ragu containing meat, minced vegetables, and milk, requiring hours of simmering. Not exactly something you can throw together on your average night. Although quick versions exist, I'd rather save myself for the real thing.

Enter this Nicoise sauce. The ground meat and minced vegetables are reminiscent of Bolognese, but the olives and orange peel make it different enough to stand on it's own. I found this recipe a couple years ago and have made it for company several times to rave reviews. Like most sauces, it doubles and freezes nicely. If you don't have a food processor or don't feel like splurging for sirloin, don't fret! You can chop the vegetables by hand and use regular ground beef.

Lastly, please excuse the fact that my photo of this dish looks like something you'd feed to your favorite canine friend, I'm still working on the whole picture taking thing. Happy cooking!

Nicoise Sauce
Adapted from Food Network Magazine

2 teaspoons olive oil
4 slices bacon, diced
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 pound ground sirloin
2 shallots
4 carrots
3 stalks celery
1/4 cup red wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Salt and pepper
1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup kalamata or nicoise olives, chopped
3/4 teaspoon fresh OR 1/4 teaspoon dried orange zest
hot water

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until it starts to brown, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute. Add the ground sirloin and cook for 5 minutes, breaking it up as it cooks. Finely chop the shallots, carrots, and celery in a food processor and add to the pan along with the wine and tomato paste. Cook until the vegetables soften, about 6 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Soak the orange zest in 1/2 cup of hot water for 5 minutes. Once the vegetables have softened, add the crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, olives, and orange zest including liquid. Bring the sauce to a simmer, lower the heat, cover, and cook 20 minutes. Uncover, increase the heat and simmer to thicken.

Remove the bay leaf and season the sauce with salt and pepper. I've served this sauce over gnocchi as the original recipe suggested as well as pasta. This time around we went with spaghetti squash and it was just as good.

Makes 4 servings