Eggplant Bolognese (Italian Meat Sauce)

A hearty, meaty Italian tomato sauce thickened with mild buttery eggplant and flavored with fresh garlic and herbs, this sauce tastes amazing but is so healthy and good for you. It’ll make your taste buds want to dance and your whole body happy.

In case you haven’t noticed, this year I’m on a mission to lower my cholesterol. In fact, I’m doing a series of posts on ingredients and recipes that are good for lowering cholesterol, boosting your HDLs (the good cholesterol) and lowering your bad cholesterol (the LDL). I’ve got one post done and the other two (or more?) are in progress. I’ll probably post part 2 of my cholesterol lowering recipe collection tomorrow, but I know I’m not going to get around to mentioning eggplant until at least part 3. A lot of people fear eggplant or think they don’t like it (perhaps because they’ve had it badly prepared?), but when cooked right, eggplant gives dishes a creamy buttery flavor that’s really pleasant. Eggplant can turn to mush when you cook it, which is off-putting perhaps if eaten by itself, but it disappears when you add it to a sauce like this … and it’s amazing for a thickening agent. I love  to use eggplant in curries and soups because of that. Eggplant is really very mild tasting, so it adopts the flavors of other stronger tasting veggies, herbs and spices.

The other benefit that eggplant adds to this dish is it stretches the meat and the budget. I cut the amount of meat in half and I didn’t even notice the difference. It still tasted super hearty and satisfying.

What makes eggplant so healthy?

Eggplant is low in calories, high in fiber and rich in antioxidants, vitamin K, vitamin C, manganese, potassium and folate. Eggplant is also one of the vegetables that is high in pectin (which is why it works so well as a thickening agent). Pectin binds to the cholesterol in your body and gently carries it out of the body, which in effect, lowers your cholesterol and aids in digestive health.

Eggplants can help control your blood sugar, keep your heart healthy, assist in losing weight, fighting cancer, and lowering your cholesterol.

But that’s not why I eat eggplant … it makes me feel good that I’m getting all those health benefits, but I eat eggplant because I just love the taste! Eggplant is so versatile and the color makes my heart sing. Purple is my favorite color and it occurs so rarely in food.

Last summer I had a great abundance of eggplant from my mom’s garden and so I went on an eggplant cooking spree, freezing moussaka, wild garden beefy rice casserole, creole eggplant fries and eggplant parmesan so I could enjoy all of this lovely garden goodness in the middle of winter. This is another of those dishes I made, ate some, and then stashed the rest away in the freezer for later. I’m so glad I did.

What to do with this sauce? My kids like to eat it over spaghetti (use whole grain noodles for heart health) but I prefer zoodles (zucchini noodles) … or use this lovely sauce as the red sauce for lasagna or under baked eggs.

Eggplant Bolognese

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Yield: 3 - 6 servings 1x

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Ingredients

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• 3 carrots, peeled & shredded (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 of a large onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)
• 3 – 6 cloves of garlic, peeled & chopped fine
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon grass fed butter (such as Kerrygold)
• 1/2 lb. peeled, chopped eggplant
• 1/2 lb. ground beef (or venison … or for a vegetarian version, 1/2 lb. mushrooms)
• 1 small (6-oz.) can tomato paste
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 1 Tablespoon wortcestershire sauce
• 1 lb. fresh tomatoes, peeled & chopped or 1 15-oz. can of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup fat free half & half
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (more or less to taste)
• About 2 Tablespoons EACH: chopped fresh basil AND oregano leaves
• A bit of finely chopped fresh rosemary
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

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Instructions

1. Peel the carrots and shred them and chop the onion and garlic … or run all three through your food processor or handi chopper until finely chopped.
2. Heat a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat and add the butter and olive oil. Add the carrots, onion & garlic and saute for 3 – 5 minutes. Stir in the eggplant and cook for about 5 minutes longer.
3. Move the veggies over to the outside edges of the pan, making a spot in the center to cook the meat or mushrooms. Add the meat (or mushrooms) and cook until browned, stirring as it cooks to break it up into small bits, then stir the mixture together.
4. Then make another spot in the center. Add the tomato paste in the center and let it warm for a minute or so, then stir it into the mixture, adding the wine, wortcestershire sauce and tomatoes. Stir in the half & half and the salt, then the herbs. Add pepper. Cover, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
5. Serve over cooked pasta and/or veggie “noodles” with freshly ground parmesan.

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Notes

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

© Copyright 2019, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.

Looking for more healthy Italian recipes?

Then you’ll love these!

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• Crunchy Cheesy Italian Eggplant Fries
• Rosemary Plum Italian Cream Sodas
• Grilled Italian Garlic Asparagus
• Italian Rosemary Garlic Spiced Nuts
• Spiedies (Legendary Italian Meat Kabobs)
• Carabaccia (Italian Onion Soup)
• Eggplant Caprese Pizza
• Zoodle Ricotta Pepperoni Pizza
• Mushroom Artichoke Sun Dried Tomato Pizza
• Breakfast Pizza with Herb Garlic Veggie Crust