Veganizing Nonna's Spaghetti Bolonese

I'm gonna jump right in because I hate long intros to recipes, so here's the short story. I have a friend who passed down her Nonna's bolognese recipe to my family. When we went vegan a few years ago, we knew this had to be one of the first family recipes that we veganized and luckily it's a pretty easy one!

Please excuse the formatting...I never claimed to be a blogging professional. 

Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup celery (3 celery stalks)
1 cup carrots (3 medium carrots)
1 yellow onion
3 tbsp butter (divided)
1/2 tbsp salt
2-3 cloves garlic
2 pounds (or 8 cups) meat-substitute (make your own or store-bought)
1.5 cup dry white wine
32 oz can of tomato sauce
Violife: "Just Like Parmesan" Wedge
2 tsp each of oregano, thyme, rosemary, and basil
optinonal: 1 cup cashew cream (our favorite is in this cookbook: https://www.eamonandbec.com/weekday-whip-ups, but feel free to find your own recipe to use)


Now that you've seen the ingredients - a little disclaimer: 

This particular Nonna withheld a lot of detail when it came to heat, cooking time, and even measurements for ingredients. We measured as best as we could, but so much of this recipe will be perfected if you're tasting the sauce as you go and adjusting spices and cooking time to your own preferences. And let me know what you change! I'm always looking to improve recipes!

Okay, let's go! I think step by step is gonna be the way to go with this recipe.

1. Dice up your carrots, celery, and onion. Toss them in a pan over medium heat with 2 tbsp of butter and 1/2 tbsp of salt. Cook the veggies until they're soft and translucent. 

My phone camera didn't show the translucent very well.
Yours should look even more translucent than this!

2. Add in your garlic, minced or chopped and cook until fragrant. 

3. Remove the veggies from the pan and set them aside. Add in your meat substitute (we used Beyond Beef) and cook per package instructions.

4. Once the meat is cooked through, add your veggies back in as well as the cup and a half of wine. You will need to simmer the mixture on low until the wine cooks off. You're looking for still some liquid left in the pan, but enough time for the alcohol to cook off. 

5. Add in your tomato sauce. At this point, feel free to add more or less sauce depending on how thick you'd like your bolognese to be. 

6. Take your Parmesan wedge and cut off about 1/2 inch of the thicker end. Drop this (the makeshift rind) into the sauce. 

7. Add in your spices and the last tablespoon of butter. Simmer, uncovered, on low for at least half an hour. If you want to let it simmer longer, keep an eye on the amount of liquid and add more tomato sauce if it gets too thick for your liking. Don't forget to keep checking taste and feel free to add salt/pepper to taste as you go.

8. After you've simmered for at least half an hour, add in the cashew cream. Stir it in and make sure it's heated through. Remove the cheese rind, pour it over your favorite noodle, and buon appetito!!

Ugh, it's only 4:30 here but I'm already salivating after our bolognese leftovers from last night's feast. I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as our family does. Please let me know how it goes when you give it a try - I'm so looking forward to learning from you all as I go!

I love you! Go eat!

-Emily