Yes, you read that right. Beef, bison, venison, pork, and a smoked ribeye come together for this absolutely epic meat sauce that puts an American twist on an Italian classic. This is a carnivores dream come to life, and it’s even better than it sounds.
Ultimate Smoked 5-Meat Truffle Bolognese
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Servings: 8-10
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbs olive oil or butter
- 1 whole yellow onion, diced
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 10 cloves of roasted garlic (see recipe here)
- 1 lb ground bison
- 1 lb ground venison
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 smoked ribeye steak, diced into small bite sized pieces.
- 1 tbs Italian seasoning
- 1 tbs Herbs de Provence
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- Optional: ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (adjust to heat preference)
- Optional: 1-3 teaspoons sugar
- 1-3 cups red wine (see note below)
- 1 jar Truff pasta sauce (or a jar of your favorite high-quality tomato sauce)
- 1 jar spicy Truff pasta sauce (or a jar of your favorite high-quality tomato sauce)
DIRECTIONS
- Heat olive oil and/or butter in a large Dutch oven or deep skillet over medium heat. Add the diced onion and a pinch of salt and some fresh cracked pepper, and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the minced garlic, herbs de Provence, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes if using, and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute). The trick here is to let everything stick and brown to the pan just a little bit without burning. This means stir occasionally so it doesn’t burn, but not too frequently so it can still stick and brown.
- Deglaze the pan by pouring in about 1 cup of red wine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let it simmer for about 2-3 minutes until most of the alcohol cooks off. If this is your first time deglazing, read my notes below to learn how to do this. Most importantly here is the timing, you want to deglaze when the onion garlic and herbs are nice and browned but not burning, we do not want any black bits on the pan.
- Brown all of the ground meat – beef, bison, venison, and pork – by simply dropping into your onion and garlic mixture. You can substitute or use any combination of ground meat here, but I would not skip the beef and pork (see note below.)
- Deglaze the pan yet again once the meat has nicely browned and hopefully stuck to the pan a bit.
- Stir in the tomato sauce of your choosing and mix well. I strongly suggest using Truff Pasta Sauce for this recipe as it will create a unique flavor profile unparalleled by any other bolognese you’ve had (and no, this recipe is not sponsored by Truff!).
- When the sauce starts to bubble, add another half cup or more of wine to the sauce, along with the diced smoked steak. Reduce heat to low and let the sauce simmer for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
- Taste the sauce, if you feel it is too acidic or simply just prefer a sweeter sauce, add 1-3 teaspoons of sugar. This will balance out the acidity.
- Serve with pasta and freshly grated parmesan cheese.
- As always, be sure to read the notes below for advice on ingredients, substitutions, storage and more.
NOTES
- Deglazing is a very fancy way of saying “pour liquid in your hot pan to lift all the browned bits off and incorporate back into the sauce.” In this recipe we are deglazing with red wine, and it can literally be any red wine of your choosing. You will notice some variation each time you make this depending on the wine you use, so don’t make the mistake of thinking the wine itself doesn’t matter – but it really does not have to be the nicest most expensive wine, any will do, really. Keep the heat up on your pan so that when the wine hits the pan a hot sizzle starts and lots of steam rises, that’s how you’ll know you’re doing it right. Your goal here is for all of the stuck on food form the onion and garlic and herbs to lift up within a few seconds and reincorporate back into the sauce.
- You’ll see there are a few times throughout this recipe that wine is added. This is a personal preference but one that I firmly stand by. There are times I use almost ¾ of a bottle depending on how much sauce I’m making! The leftovers will be super fragrant and your guests will ask why their bolognese never tastes this good.. the answer is lots of garlic and wine!
- I like to use both butter and olive oil to get the pan started. If I did a blind taste test of this meal with one over the other I’m sure there would be zero way of knowing which was used, it’s just what I like to do.
- As I mention above, feel free to get creative or substitute any of the meats in this recipe. I love to mix in the bison and venison because of its unique flavor profile, but if you want to stick to beef and pork that will still be excellent.
- See my recipe for simple roasted garlic using tin foil here.
- My favorite pasta to serve this with is bucatini. My second favorite is cavatappi.
- You’ll notice there is no carrot or celery in this recipe, something you would certainly expect from a traditional bolognese. If that’s what you’re looking for I don’t blame you but you are in the wrong place!
- A bolognese like this really lets you get creative. If something in this recipe isn’t your thing, or you feel inspired to put your own twist on it, I encourage you to do it!
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