Spaghetti Bolognese is a firm favourite in many households. As a child I remember coming home from school to smell the simmering tomato filled sauce, with the windows covered in condensation from the boiling pasta. I have no Italian heritage, and yet it forms a happy part of my childhood memories.
It also brings memories of university, when a kind but not too well trained friend attempted to cook me spaghetti Bolognese, where the sauce consisted of mince, onion and Worcester sauce. It didn't even contain tomatoes.
Moving to more recent times, I have been experimenting with different recipes. In Jamie Oliver's America book, he makes a chilli using brisket beef. And I have taken this as my inspiration.
Brisket beef is a good alternative to mince as it is less fatty and more wholesome. Being a forgotten cut, it is also relatively cheap, and of a comparable price to premium steak mince.
Method
Dice the onions finely. Then sauté them gently in a deep heavy based pan.
Finely chop your vegetables, or liquidize them if you prefer a smooth sauce. I like to add carrots, bell peppers and mushrooms to my sauce. Add a handful of herbs. I normally use generic mixed herbs along with some extra oregano and a couple of fresh bay leaves.
Add the vegetables to the pan and stir for a few minutes.
Add a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes and stir the mixture up even more. Try to break up the tomatoes, so that what you have in the pan is a thick vegetable stew. It should smell delicious at this point.
While the vegetable stew simmers, cut the brisket beef into inch thick chunks. Add them to the stew. Add freshly ground pepper to taste.
Add a cup of coffee. I'm not too sure what this does exactly, but it's what Jamie Oliver uses in his Chilli recipe.
Add some stock - enough to just cover the meat. I prefer to use vegetable stock as it is healtheri. Boullion is my favourite brand.
Finally, stir the sauce and then allow it to simmer over a low heat for two hours, stirring occasionally.
After two hours the meat should be nice and tender. Turn the heat off and break up the meat with a potato masher. The sauce should now be a heart warming thick gloop. If it contains too much liquid, turn the heat back on and simmer it without a lid above a low heat, until the excess liquid has evaporated. You can speed up this process by scooping out some of the excess liquid from the top of the sauce, though be careful not to discard too many solids.
If you are not too concerned about saturated fats, and like a bit of cheese, you can improve the flavour of this dish by adding half a block of cheddar cheese. I know it isn't traditional, and that cheddar comes from England, but it's what my mother does and I just love it. If you are unsure about this, please just try it on a small portion of sauce. It really is magical.
To serve, scoop the amount of sauce required into a separate large saucepan, add the pasta, and then stir it around. You should always add the pasta to the sauce, not the other way around. This is because it helps the sauce to cover the pasta, which will then absorb the flavour.
It also brings memories of university, when a kind but not too well trained friend attempted to cook me spaghetti Bolognese, where the sauce consisted of mince, onion and Worcester sauce. It didn't even contain tomatoes.
Moving to more recent times, I have been experimenting with different recipes. In Jamie Oliver's America book, he makes a chilli using brisket beef. And I have taken this as my inspiration.
Brisket beef is a good alternative to mince as it is less fatty and more wholesome. Being a forgotten cut, it is also relatively cheap, and of a comparable price to premium steak mince.
Method
Dice the onions finely. Then sauté them gently in a deep heavy based pan.
Finely chop your vegetables, or liquidize them if you prefer a smooth sauce. I like to add carrots, bell peppers and mushrooms to my sauce. Add a handful of herbs. I normally use generic mixed herbs along with some extra oregano and a couple of fresh bay leaves.
Add the vegetables to the pan and stir for a few minutes.
Add a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes and stir the mixture up even more. Try to break up the tomatoes, so that what you have in the pan is a thick vegetable stew. It should smell delicious at this point.
While the vegetable stew simmers, cut the brisket beef into inch thick chunks. Add them to the stew. Add freshly ground pepper to taste.
Add a cup of coffee. I'm not too sure what this does exactly, but it's what Jamie Oliver uses in his Chilli recipe.
Add some stock - enough to just cover the meat. I prefer to use vegetable stock as it is healtheri. Boullion is my favourite brand.
Finally, stir the sauce and then allow it to simmer over a low heat for two hours, stirring occasionally.
After two hours the meat should be nice and tender. Turn the heat off and break up the meat with a potato masher. The sauce should now be a heart warming thick gloop. If it contains too much liquid, turn the heat back on and simmer it without a lid above a low heat, until the excess liquid has evaporated. You can speed up this process by scooping out some of the excess liquid from the top of the sauce, though be careful not to discard too many solids.
If you are not too concerned about saturated fats, and like a bit of cheese, you can improve the flavour of this dish by adding half a block of cheddar cheese. I know it isn't traditional, and that cheddar comes from England, but it's what my mother does and I just love it. If you are unsure about this, please just try it on a small portion of sauce. It really is magical.
To serve, scoop the amount of sauce required into a separate large saucepan, add the pasta, and then stir it around. You should always add the pasta to the sauce, not the other way around. This is because it helps the sauce to cover the pasta, which will then absorb the flavour.
Source...