Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
  • 1 pound ground sirloin
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 small carrot, peeled and grated, or finely chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 cup beef or chicken stock
  • 1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
  • 2 tablespoons basil, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
  • 1 large bag yellow corn chips
  • 2 cups fresh smoked scamorza cheese or any other smoked cheese, grated
  • 1 cup hot pepper rings
  • 1 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

Yield

Serves: 8 servings

Preparation

For the meat sauce for the nachos, heat a large sauce pan with EVOO over medium-high heat. Add the meat and brown it to the point of it becoming a little on the crispy side, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it goes. This will give the sauce a deep flavor. Move browned meat over to one side of the pan, leaving room on one side of the pan. Add the onion, carrot, garlic and bay leaf, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up all the bits from the meat and veggies off the bottom of the pan. Raise the heat to high and add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, stock, crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce, and cook until the sauce starts to thicken, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the basil and parsley.

On a cookie sheet, spread out half of the corn chips, top with half of the sauce (do your best to cover the chips but dollops of the sauce here and there will do the trick). Top with half of the cheese, then repeat with a second layer of chips, sauce and cheese.

Transfer to the oven to melt the cheese, just a couple of minutes. Remove from the oven and top with the hot pepper rings and kalamata olives.