Black Bear Bolognese
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Spring is the time that most of us are chasing turkeys and foraging the woods for wild morel mushrooms. Being in the south, I admit that most of my free time in the spring is spent doing these things and also catching white bass and crappie. But, to others, the springtime means black bear hunting. This black bear bolognese is a great change-of-pace springtime meal, though it doesn’t have to be spring to enjoy it. If you’re not familiar, Bolognese is an Italian dish that originated in the city of Bologna. It’s traditionally a slow-cooked meat-based sauce that is rich and creamy, made with finely minced meat, a small variety of vegetables, wine and cream and then served with noodles. Give this recipe a try the next time you’re looking for an easy and flavorful dish, especially if you’ve got some fresh spring bear meat.
Serving Size: 4 Servings
Time to Make: 1 hour
Also Works With: Any ground red meat
Looking for more Italian bear recipes? Try out Natalie Auer’s Bear Braciole with Garlic Parmesan Polenta recipe!
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Black Bear Bolognese
4
servings15
minutes45
minutesKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion finely diced*
1 medium -large carrot finely diced*
1 celery rib finely diced*
1 pound ground black bear
3 garlic cloves minced
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup beef broth
2 cups tomato sauce
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 Bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
16 oz cooked pasta of choice
⅓ cup of whole milk
Fresh Parmesan cheese
Preparation
- Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a pot.
- Add onion, carrot and celery. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add ground black bear and brown meat, being sure to cook thoroughly.
- Once meat is cooked, add garlic and continue to cook for an additional minute.
- Pour in wine and broth and reduce by about half.
- Pour in tomato sauce, tomato paste and add bay leaves, salt and pepper and simmer for 20 minutes. During this time, cook your pasta of choice, I recommend linguine, and reserve 1 cup of pasta water.
- Returning to the bolognese, remove bay leaves and then stir in milk.
- Mix cooked pasta and bolognese in the same pot, toss to evenly coat. Add pasta water if you desire to thin the sauce out more.
- Plate mixture and grate fresh Parmesan on top to serve.
Notes
- *To help speed this recipe up, you can run these ingredients through a food processor until they are about the same consistency as diced.*
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