As I am going to cook spaghetti bolognese today I just realised that my recipe in my old blog is still missing from this new blog. So I have decided it’s time I update it here in this new blog.
My boy asked for his comfort food and I made the bolognese sauce today so he has a few meals as his tapau.
There are many ways of making a bolognese sauce and almost every household has their own secret recipes. This humble origin from the Italy city of Bologna is now a household staple here in England. The French add in bouquet garni, some uses a touch of cream and in UK children from baby to the elderly love spaghetti bolognese. It is fed to baby like rice porridge in Malaysia. Of course the Italian purist would say we have corrupted their dish.
This take about 30 minutes of cooking, an hour of simmering and after that it is a very flexible and versatile sauce with many usage.
Posh Spaghetti Bolognese
Ingredients
- Knob of butter
- Minced beef
- Beef OXO cubes
- Minced garlic
- Minced onion
- Panchetta or smoked lardons
- Worcestershire sauce
- Red wine (full bodied)
- Passata
- Tomato puree
- Mixed herbs
Instructions
- Please read the pics below for instructions
Spaghetti Bolognese with shaving of Parmesan 
Giant Fusilli Spaghetti Bolognese
I like my beef mince to be a bit brown and seasoned. In a clean pan fry your beef. I used a knob of butter. 
When mince beef separate add in 2 beef oxo cubes. These will season the mince beef nicely. 
Add in 2 onions and a few cloves of minced garlic. Note – If you have small children who don’t like big lumps of onions mince them smaller a bit. Note 1 – when my son was young I grate in carrots too (Y) Start with just a little not too much 😀 then slowly increase. Actually my ‘outlaws’ told me in the olden days poor people adds in grated carrots to bulk up the bolognese 
Add in panchetta or more smoked lardons or bacon. This gives it an extra ‘ooom’ Note – Some personal family recipe add chorizo it’s all your preference Note 2 – you can add the lardons earlier to get the oil out but I preferred not to. 🙂 Note 3 – or you can just omit this part if you find it hard to get but taste will be different 
Sprinkle in a few drop of worcestershire sauce. If you are wondering what to do with this bottle besides just in this dish, drip some on your finger and try it. It’s a nice seasoning. Note – highly recommend on top of grilled cheese on toast 
After about 20 minutes of frying till everything is all nice and incorporated it’s time for the red wine. Use a full bodied red wine. I use a whole bottle except for one glass (someone drank it) 😀 You can use beef broth if you are cooking for your baby. 
Let the wine cook down to half 
bay leaves or you can add a bouquet garni. 
This is what makes a bolognese sauce. The passata – I used 2 packets of 500g. 
Add in 1 tbsp of tomato puree – this gives it the rich red colour
Note – if you have that left over tomato sauce bottle in the cupboard you can rinse it out and add in too!
Herbs time Mixed herbs is always easy and on hand. Sprinkle some in. As my son grows up he likes the taste more. He don’t like it when he was young. I sprinkle a big tsp but again it is up to you. You can add in a few bay leaves or you can add a bouquet garni. 
You can taste now Add in freshly ground peppers. I did not add any salt because the oxo cubes were salty and I plan to serve with Parmesan and it’s a bit salty. Note – sometimes if too sour you can add in a tsp of sugar as some tomato passata are a tad sour depending on the season they were harvested. 
Cover and turn heat down and let to simmer for an hour. The bolognese sauce will become rich and shinny 
Boil your pasta and makes sure don’t over boil. Overcooked pasta is horrible. 
Place some sauce onto your still hot pasta on the still hot pot. 
Mix a couple of minutes till the pasta soaked the sauce up 🙂
