Big Batch of Bolognese

Traditionally bolognese sauce simmers slowly in an uncovered pot for at least three hours. If you don't use a lid in the Sun Oven it will burn on top, and if you do the sauce will be watery. Today I tried a new trick to address both these issues and I may be on to something. I covered the pot with a tea towel and left the lid slightly ajar. In addition to keeping the sauce from burning, the tea towel absorbed some of the moisture. Today's batch of bolognese was my best ever from the Sun Oven. We had some over rigatoni for dinner and there are two containers of it in the freezer for Martin to enjoy while I'm away.

Solar Bolognese Sauce

I didn't really need to make anything for dinner tonight. It was Martin's boys night out and I had plenty of leftovers in the fridge. Since bolognese sauce, like beef stew, is better the next day I decided to make some for tomorrow's dinner. I planned on heating up the leftovers for my dinner.

The sauce simmered in the Sun Oven all day. Normally, bolognese sauce is cooked at the laziest simmer, uncovered, for at least three hours. I've tried leaving it uncovered in the Sun Oven, but it started to burn. If left covered it was watery. To adapt it to solar cooking I covered it with the lid slightly ajar and put a small knife between the glass door and the gasket of the Sun Oven allowing the steam to escape.

As you can see from the picture, I was unable to wait until tomorrow to have some. Instead of heating up the boring leftovers I made some pasta for my dinner. The only thing missing was a nice glass of wine.

Lentil Bolognese

A pretty uneventful solar cooking day. I made a lentil bolognese sauce for Meatless Monday. It's a very easy to make, satisfying topping for whole wheat pasta and comes out great in the Sun Oven.







Lentil Bolognese

1/2 lb dry lentils

1 Tbs olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 26 oz carton Pomi strained tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
fresh or frozen basil
freshly grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Rinse and pick over lentils. Place in a dark pot, cover with water, and cook in Sun Oven until tender.  Add wine and cook until it evaporates. Add Pomi (or other brand strained tomatoes), salt, and transfer to Sun Oven.

When lentils are tender drain and combine with tomato mixture. Continue cooking for another ten to twenty minutes. Remove from Sun Oven and add basil. Serve over pasta with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

It a separate pot heat olive oil and sautee diced vegetables until tender, about 10 minutes.

Solar Oven Bolognese Sauce Part One

The best bolognese sauce I've ever made was about 25 years ago. I was visiting my mother in Germany and we were invited to a potluck. I decided to bring lasagna. Ever since then I have been trying, with various degrees of success, to recreate it. I don't know if it was the beef or the fact that after letting the sauce simmer all afternoon I forgot to turn it off before we went out for dinner. I knew my mother would worry about the house burning down so I didn't mention it and the sauce continued to simmer for a least another two hours. Everyone at the party raved about the lasagna. I was disappointed that I had wasted such an accomplishment on a bunch of people I didn't even know. And to top things off they all thought my mother had made it!

Today's solar cooked sauce is yet another attempt to recapture that flavor. Back then I did not use a recipe but now I pretty much follow my trusted Marcella Hazan. I use a leaner beef although I have no idea what the fat percentage was of the German beef. I remember only that my mother commented on how fatty it was. I was also much leaner, weighing in at barely 100lb.

To be honest this was not entirely made in the solar oven. I assembled it inside on the stove and moved it to the solar oven to finish cooking. I debated over whether to cover the pot or not. Normally a good bolognese sauce is left to simmer for at least three hours, uncovered, at a very low heat. I started out with the pot uncovered but it seemed to be drying out too quickly so I placed the lid on leaving it slightly ajar.

The sauce seems to have come out pretty well. I'm going to be using it to make some kind of baked pasta dish later in the week so I've only tasted a spoonful of it. It's hard to tell if it's as good as the German sauce because it needs to be combined with pasta for the real magic to happen.