Ground Beef Pasta Sauce with Stout
Easy recipe for homemade ground beef pasta sauce with tomatoes and roasty notes from stout ale (a flavor infusion everyone will love and few would suspect the source of). Similarly to Italian ragu sauces it is finished with heavy cream, a la Bolognese.
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Servings: 1 quart
Calories: 613kcal
Ingredients
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 carrot finely chopped
- 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef preferably 80/20
- 2 ¼ cups crushed tomatoes*
- 1 tablespoon beef base**
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 ½ teaspoon dried oregano or marjoram
- 12 oz stout ale***
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Sweat the finely chopped onion and carrot in the olive oil, over medium heat until soft.
- Add the ground beef and break it up with a wooden spoon. Stir the mixture and allow to cook until all the juices released by the beef evaporate and there is only olive oil left. Stir frequently during this stage.
- Add the beef base, brown sugar, thyme, oregano and tomatoes. Stir well and stew for a couple of minutes.
- Slowly add the stout, stir well and allow to stew at medium-low or low, until the liquids reduce and the sauce thickens. (Depending on how strong the heat this simmering can take between 15 and 30 minutes; slower is better=more flavor).
- Once the sauce has thickened, stir in the heavy cream and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
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Notes
Optional: You can enhance the flavors in this meat sauce by adding a handful or diced pancetta or leaner bacon (crisp it up before you begin sweating the onion and carrots) and adding garlic and/or onion powder to taste (at the time you add the oregano and thyme).
*about 18 oz
**sold as paste; substitute with 1 or 2 cubes beef bouillon, crushed to facilitate its dissolving
***you can substitute with a porter, English brown ale, German dunkel lager (Munich or Franconian) or black lager (Schwarzbier)
The sauce can be refrigerated (up to 4-5 days) or frozen (up to 3 months). Be sure to cool it down completely first.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 613kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 35g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 20g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 120mg | Sodium: 961mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 11g
