making bolognaise sauce from scratch

beachbeth

I wish you'd all stop talking about bolognese!!! I love it and you're making me hungry. I know what we're going to have for tea tomorrow now!

Personally, I use tinned tomatoes or passata and put bacon in if Ive got some. Red wine adds to it too! Yum!

in_my_wellies

If I remember to soak them I add half a cup of red lentils, the tiny ones to make the meat go further if I need to.

beachbeth

Im so glad I read this thread. I will try adding carrots, basil and sugar when I next make it. Thanks everyone!

Mamabear

I'm probably a bit late but I posted this on a different thread earlier - it'll sound a bit pretentious if you are just planning a 'spag bol' but its the bees wotsits (if I say so myself) :




I should explain, she says flicking her long flowing locks in a very creative way, cooking is an art and the following is my interpretation of an old family recipe - it usually works and only goes wrong if I try to rush it and either don't sweat the veg for long enough or shorten the cooking time.

I can't give you precise volumes or weights - no one ever gave me any - but a top tip is that the veg should roughly equal the meat in volume.

3 large Onions (finely diced)
5 large Carrots (grated - my 1 cut corner - I hate dicing carrots)
8 sticks Celery (peeled with a potato peeler and finely diced
1 head of Garlic (very finely diced)
Olive oil (quarter of a cup) - I use Aldi's for cooking
2 Bay leaves
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 - 3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 kilos mince -a mixture of beef and pork (or veal if you can bear it)
don't bother with lean mince - the fat is full of flavour
1 and a half tetrapacks of Lidl's passata
half bottle of ok (but not great) red wine
1 stock cube (I'm a bit of a stock cube fetishist and I tend to bring back stock cubes whenever I'm out of the country

Sweat the onions carrots and celery - the books all say for 20 minutes or until opaque - I find this takes at least 40 minutes and is best done on a simmer ring, if I try to do it on a higher flame the onions 'catch' and the sauce is tainted. Half way through add the garlic.
Add the meat and allow to brown stir in the vinegar, soy sauce, stock cube bay leaves and wine. When the alcohol has evaporated add 1 pack of passata. After an hour or so I taste it and may add some anchovy paste (Burgess, in a tube from Sainsbury), perhaps some tomato puree (a squidge or 2) and probably some more passata. Allow to simmer, stirring occasionally adding a little water from the kettle if needed (don't let my DH anywhere near it as he like to add pints of water. Grate a nutmeg into the sauce just before turning off the heat.

For a special - extra rich - sauce I add a few chicken livers, finely diced (remove the stringy bitter bits) and through in for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Add a little freshly grated parmesan and if you are not dieting a little knob of butter and a large glass of (your favourite) poison...

As with all stews, the sauce is even better the next day and is even better with 'proper' pasta (Di Cecco, Barilla, Buitoni - anything with a bit of guts) as unfortunately the stuff made for the uk market seems to collapse on contact with boiling water :mad: )

The sauce is not low fat but is very rich and a little goes a long way. I find that the above amounts will make at least 20 servings for 2 of us (i.e. 40 portions) with very healthy appetites.

I hope you try it, if you do, I know you'll love it.

jcr16

i do agree once u have made your own , your never want shop bought again. i never stick to the same spag bol recipe. i vary it depending on what i have in cupboard. i have never added wine ( not sure why , maybe cause i have never bought red wine).
my daugther won't eat carrots anymore , but i do dice them up very small and add them and she doesn't notice. also we like grated cheese on top. yummy. i have found tho the key to a sucessful bol sauce is time. once sauce is made i let it simmer for about 2-3 hours. this really brings out the flavour. or keep it in fridge to let flavour develop. u really will notice the difference..

HTH

wigginsmum

A sprinkle of Bisto Best beef granules helps too - makes it really rich.

Jules

overdrawn

hi just to say a really big thankyou to all who replied to my original post-i will definitely give it a go now thankyou everyone !!!!!!!!

Alleycat

A bit late, but just to add my own version of homemade bolognaise, it makes enough for three meals for two (and a nearly toddler).

2lb mince (from the butcher therefore not producing huge quantities of water)
1 onion
6 or so medium mushrooms
Cheap tin of chopped tomatoes
half a tube of tomato puree
teaspoon of garlic puree
2 dessert spoons of sugar
Dried oregano
Quick squidge of chilli puree
Olive oil

You can also add courgette if you fancy. I tend to chuck this in if my OH isn't nearby as he doesn't like it, but can't complain if its already cooked and plonked in front of him!

I like to use fresh homemade pasta, but if I'm cooking it on a work night I usually have some fresh pasta in the freezer that I pick up cheap from the supermarket when its about to pass its sell by date.

ti1980

I don't mind courgette myself and I do tend to use it whenever I make a pasta sauce of any type though my bf doesn't really like it much but he will eat it when I make it bless him. I don't particularly like it when its in big chunks so I either dice it relatively finely or I grate it now and bf just thinks they are spring onions!

Davidboy

I think you have gathered from so many replies is.... a technical term..bung it all in!!

We use all sorts, it is one of those dishes that tastes good whatever you bung into it.

Mince
Oinion
garlic
mushrooms
2 tins value Tesco tomato
bacon
carrot
oxo cube made up in half pint boliling water, then stir in teaspoon Marmite
quarter pint red wine
tomato ketchup (a big squirt)
tomato puree
mixed herbs

Dont worry about quanties, just bung it in, Trial and error.

Boil it til it firms up then devour!!

Don't know about you lot, but after a good tuck in, I don't arf need the Rennie at bedtime!!


D