Pork and Fennel Bolognese for the other Amelia

I recently had my friend over for dinner, who is fondly referred to by me as "the other Amelia", because I of course am the first Amelia... Anyway she liked my Bolognese ( although it was not traditional in any way and didn't taste like a regular Bolognese) so here we go, Pork and fennel Bolognese for the "other" Amelia...

Enjoy Mels, another recipe to add to your repertoire, and you can say it's an Amelia original and won't be lying! Gotta love that!

Pork and Fennel Bolognese

• 1 tbs butter
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 bunch of parsley stems finely chopped, leaves reserved for serving
• 500g pork mince (mine was quite lean)
• 11/2 to 2 cups white wine (old undrinkable wine is totally fine)
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• pinch or two of dried crushed chilli, or a shake or two of chilli powder
• 1 tsp each sugar and allspice
• 11/2 tbs crushed fennel seeds (I used a mortar and pestle, but by all means use a knife, but be warned they do tend to fly everywhere when you crush them this way!)
• 1 tsp chicken stock powder, or a cube

To serve:

• Pasta of your choice
• Freshly grated Parmesan

Instructions

Saute the onion, garlic, celery, and carrot in the oil and butter over medium high heat until the onions start to turn translucent (if it's going too golden turn the heat down).

Increase the heat to high, add the parsley stems and the mince and cook, breaking up the mince, until it has crumbled apart and is just cooked through, add the wine, allow to bubble until the alcohol in the wine cooks out (it won't smell so harsh once this happens).

Add all the remaining ingredients (apart from parsley leaves and Parmesan), turn down the heat to medium low and allow to simmer for half an hour to 45 minutes until sauce is slightly reduced. Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary at this point, and stir through the reserved chopped parsley leaves.

To serve simply stir a good amount of this sauce through cooked pasta. I served mine with beautifully coloured artisan orecchiette, but it would be just as nice with regular spaghetti, or any other pasta really.

Enjoy :)