Roasted Red Pepper "Bolognese" -- Lo/No Tomato!

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HeidiCooksSupper

Assistant Cook
Joined
Mar 10, 2017
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Location
Columbia
I use roasted red bell peppers as the main ingredient for this pasta sauce because we can't eat tomatoes but really have a hankering for a red sauce. As written, the recipes does include a dollop of tomato paste but it may be left out.

The recipe specifies using dark miso for its salty taste and sweet soy sauce for sweetness. They are wonderful "umami bombs" that deserve a place in any kitchen. If you don't have these at hand, any salt and sugar can be used to adjust the sauce taste to your liking.

3 Tbsp olive oil
2 large shallots, minced
4 to 6 clove garlic, minced
2 large celery stalks, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1 lb ground beef
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
1 c dry white wine
1 c whole milk
8 to 12 oz mushrooms, sliced
6 medium red peppers, roasted and peeled
1 c chicken broth, homemade or low salt
1 Tbsp tomato paste (optional)
2 to 4 tsp dark miso paste or other salt
2 to 4 tsp sweet soy sauce or brown sugar

Directions
1. In a large stew pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add carrots and celery and gently cook until slightly softened, stirring occasionally. About 5 minutes.
2. Add shallots and garlic and continue to cook gently about 2 minutes. Do not allow vegetables to brown.
3. Add ground beef, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until beef has lost its pink color and is broken into small pieces.
4. Add white wine. Turn up heat to medium high and boil mixture vigorously until the smell of the wine reduces. About 5 minutes. Do not allow to boil dry or vegetables to brown.
5. Add milk and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Turn heat to low, cover, and let simmer 20 minutes.
6. Add mushrooms and simmer an additional 10 minutes, stirring to make sure all mushrooms are submerged.
7. Process roasted red peppers, the tomato paste, and 1/2 the chicken broth in a food processor or blender until almost smooth. Add this and the remaining chicken broth to the simmering mixture. Stir. Slowly simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
8. Stir. Taste and adjust the salt/sweet balance with dark miso and sweet soy. Alternatively, use other salty and sweet ingredients to adjust the flavor.
9. Continue to simmer slowly for another 2 hours, stirring at half hour intervals.
10. Use as you would any Italian-style meat sauce. Can be served immediately over pasta or cooled for later use in assembling lasagna, pizza, etc. Freezes and reheats well.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had never heard of 'Sweet Soy Sauce' until now. Just looked it up and I will start searching for it.

This looks very interesting Heidi, Thank You!

I usually roast my own Red Peppers, but for this amount I would probably go with jarred. Do you think it would change the flavour by much?
 
I don't know about the jarred red peppers. I roast them using an easy oven method.

Line a baking sheet with foil. Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds and membranes. Flatten the halves with the palm of your hand (yes, they'll break) and put them on the foil, skin side up. You can fit three to four peppers depending on size. As long as they are in a single layer they are fine.

Run them under a preheated broiler for 10 minutes or until almost all the skin is black. Gather up the foil to cover all the peppers in a loose foil packet.

Let them cool to handling temp. Slough off and discard the skins. Voila!
 
LOL... guess I just never thought about it. Yes, have often read of the oven method but never having had a need for a quantity of them have always just done them on the stove top gas burner.

will do! Thanks!
 

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