12-3: Pasta Bolognese

This recipe, 12-3: Pasta Bolognese calls for spaghetti on the back of the card, but the dish on the front clearly shows the meat sauce on Rotini. ?

The blurb on the front of the card is definitely true. “Quick to prepare and not too expensive,” is exactly how I felt about this dish.


This dish requires a lot of chopping, but luckily I had some chopped onion already prepared in the refrigerator.


The obligatory ingredient shot. Nothing too exciting here except for the ham I suppose. The “Carving Board” style ham is cut ham steak in smaller slices which is easier to work with.


I skipped taking photos of when I was chopping all of the vegetables and sautéeing the ground beef.  The front pan is a mirepoix for the tomato sauce.


After I cooked down the vegetables and ham, I poured the tomato sauce into the pan and stirred the ingredients together.


The ground beef is the next ingredient to go into the sauce.


Someday we will get a lid that fits on top of our pan, but for now, a pizza pan will suffice. On the other burner, I boiled water and added the pasta.


Chicken broth and wine go into the sauce, followed by more stirring.


I added the pasta to the sauce to combine the two major components of the dish.


Not my best attempt at plating. After I looked at the photo on the card, I realized how dirty my bowl came out and that the dish would come out cleanly if I put the pasta in first and sauce on top. At least the garnish classes it up a bit!

Grade: A-