Fusilli Bolognese Recipe with Kale-Zuchini Salad and Crispy Bacon

Prepare your vegetables: Mince the garlic and onions. Dice the celery, leeks, and carrots. (I personally prefer slicing my onions big.) Slice the zucchinis into thin quarters. (Cut into 4 lengthwise and then cut thinly widthwise.) Zest the lemon and then juice it. Pick the leaves off the kale stem and then roughly chop the leaves.

In a pot, boil the water and add some salt. Blanch the chopped kale leaves for 15 seconds, remove it from the boiling water, and put it in an ice bath. 

In the same pot of water, boil the pasta until al dente. Drain, and set aside pasta and pasta water for the sauce.

In a frying pan, fry the bacon or prosciutto until crispy. Set aside. In the same pan, saute the garlic, onions, celery, leeks, and carrots.

Once the vegetables have sweated, add the beef, and sear until browned. Add in tomato paste, and then continue cooking until you get a nice red color, about 20 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with red wine. Let it simmer until the alcohol evaporates, another 10 minutes.

Add in the broth and some of the pasta water you set aside earlier to increase the volume of the sauce and to thicken it. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Add in the Italian seasoning, laurel leaves, and cayenne pepper, and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper. (Be sure to taste since the pasta water and the broth will have had salt already.) Pour the sauce onto the cooked pasta and mix. 

To assemble your salad: whisk together olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, black pepper, and sugar. Toss the blanched kale, the zucchini quarters, and the peanuts with the dressing. 

Serve the pasta topped with some salad and bacon. You can also garnish it with chopped parsley, grated cheese, and/or some black pepper.