Sasha loves the little star pasta, but you can use any other small shape pasta for your little one. Use whole grain pastas to bump up the nutritional value :)
*A little trick that I use when freezing food is that I freeze it in the baby ice cube trays, and then the next day I empty the trays into a freezer zip lock bag. I label the contents of the bag and the date I made it so that there is no guess-work later. This way you don't have to buy a ton of the expensive trays and you can have everything labeled clearly :)
Pasta Bolognese
*Yield 42 ounces
*Good for babies 12 months +
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup celery, very small diced
1/4 cup carrot, very small diced
1/2 cup yellow onion, very small diced
8 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
8 ounces ground beef, lean (less than 10% fat)
1 teaspoon tomato paste
28 ounces canned tomatoes, crushed
6 to 8 ounces of water, as needed
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Grated Parmesan cheese, as needed
Cooked pasta
1) Add olive oil to a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat.
2) Add celery, carrot, onion, and garlic. Sweat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring often. Onion should be translucent and soft.
3) Add ground beef and cook for about 3 minutes until almost cooked through.
4) Add tomato paste to the pot. Stir with a spoon so it coats all the vegetables. Cook another 2 to 3 minutes.
5) Add crushed tomatoes. Mix together and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat until you have a slow simmer. Add water if sauce is really thick. Stir occasionally and simmer 20 minutes.
6) Add basil and oregano. Simmer 5 more minutes.
7) Toss 1/2 cup of this sauce with a1/2 cup of cooked pasta and top with Parmesan.
*Before freezing make sure that the sauce has cooled completely. Do not freeze the sauce with pasta.*
