Spaghetti & Buffalo Meat Sauce

Do you ever go to the grocery store to get the supporting ingredients needed for dinner and then get home and realize that you're missing the main ingredient?  Ummm, that happened to me today: thought I was going to bust out my regular bolognese sauce, only to find I didn't even have ground beef in the freezer!!  WTH - must have enjoyed too many taco Tuesdays lately!

Anyways, no need to go back to the store for meat - I have tons of ground buffalo - I must admit I've only done burgers with it though - DUH.   I fooled around with one of my favourite stove-top meat sauce recipes and have come up with something super delish!!  You can obviously make the recipe with regular ground beef, but if you've never tried cooking with buffalo (called bison in some parts) then I would say go for it! 

Spaghetti & Buffalo Meat Sauce
Ingredients:
4 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 carrots
2 ribs celery
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 lb ground buffalo
1 28 ounce can San Marzano tomatoes (whole)
1 5.5 ounce can tomato paste
1/2 cup milk
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 cinnamon stick
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
fresh ground salt & pepper
1 lb whole wheat spaghetti
freshly grated parmesan cheese

Method:
Heat the butter & oil in a large pot over medium heat.  In the food processor, chop all of the vegetables until very small.

Stir in the vegetables and sweat for about 5 minutes.  Add the ground buffalo to brown, breaking up with a wooden spoon, cooking for about 5-7 minutes.

Stir in the milk, bay leaf, thyme, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. 

Add the tomatoes and tomato paste, stirring to combine and breaking up those tomatoes with your spoon.  

Add the sprig of rosemary and cinnamon stick and let simmer for about an hour over low heat. Remove the rosemary sprig and let the sauce continue to cook for another hour before ditching the cinnamon stick.  I let it continue to simmer for another hour before cooking my spaghetti.  Serve this delicious sauce on top of some whole-wheat spaghetti, garnished with freshly grated parmesan cheese!

Rosemary & cinnamon are the secret to this earthy meaty sauce!