Bolognese Sauce

This is my recipe for bolognese sauce. It's been tweaked many times and this is now our family favorite version!

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 6-12 cloves garlic (I use more if mincing, less if microplane grating)
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 medium zucchini, shredded
• 1 cup chicken stock or beef broth
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp minced fresh basil
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh oregano
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tsp dried rubbed sage
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 1/2 tsp ancho chili powder (this is a mild chili powder - don't use 1 1/2 tsp of cayenne!)
• salt & pepper to taste

Cook ground beef in a large stock pot until browned. While cooking, sauté onion and shallot in olive oil in a frying pan, 5 minutes or so until the onion is translucent, but do not brown. When beef is browned, add cooked onion and shallot, and everything else. Simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours, lower heat if cooking longer, higher if you spaced out and forgot to get started on dinner until everyone's already hungry!

Some day I should make this with fresh tomatoes...