A fail safe, tofu free vegetarian bolognese sauce

Directions

1. Make your soffritto: fry your onion, carrot, celery (and fennel) in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil on a medium heat. Add some sea salt to help the vegetables break down and cook it down until it gets soft and caramelized. As soon as you see the vegetables sticking to the bottom of the pan, add your garlic, turn down the heat and keep stirring until the veggies are nicely caramelized and almost become like a puree. Take your time (around 15 minutes). It’s the most important part of the whole sauce.
2. Add the tomato paste and cook it out until the raw smell disappears and until it also starts to caramelize on the bottom of the pan. Add your fennel seeds, thyme and oregano and stir to wake up the flavors. When you feel like it’s almost getting too dark, then you can turn up the heat and add your vinegar (you can either use only balsamic or a mixture of different vinegars but make sure it’s good quality) and your wine. Cook it down until the mixture starts to caramelize and stick to the bottom of the pan again. Turn down the heat again to medium.
3. Add the can of tomatoes (don’t bother with fresh ones, they don’t pack the same punch of flavor), add half a can of water and a couple of bay leaves (crush them a bit before you add them to make them more aromatic). Break up the tomatoes with a spoon, keep stirring and let it simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. This is when you add your aubergines and mushrooms which you prepare like this: – In a very hot pan, fry up your mushrooms with some olive oil, salt and thyme until they’re very golden and crispy. Drain on kitchen paper and let them cool down, chop them up until you get like “pulled pork” textured chunks and add them to the sauce. – The cubes of aubergine you fry in some olive oil with some salt and thyme in a medium hot pan until they’re golden brown all around. Drain on kitchen paper and add them together with your mushrooms to the sauce.
4. Let the sauce cook at medium heat for about 10 more minutes while you cook the pasta. Keep stirring so the sauce doesn’t catch on the bottom. Add salt and pepper to taste. I like to add just a tad more of balsamic vinegar in the last two minutes because it gives a really pleasant bite to the sauce.
5. Before mixing the sauce in with the pasta (and not the other way around!), take out the bay leaves and add some chopped parsley or when using basil, tear it up and add it only when you’ve stirred in the sauce with the pasta. Keep some of the pasta cooking water in case your sauce should be a little too dry.
6. Be amazed.