Question about (shh) Dolmio

[whensa]

There was a thread about 'how do you make your spaghetti bolognese' aages ago which went on for pages and pages with no-one mentioning Dolmio, so I assume it's Frowned Upon by proper MNers...

(I have no qualms about using it - it's not full of junk although it could do with being a bit less sweet, I make 90% of my meals from scratch and am not that fussed about spag bog as a dish - it's pleasant but fairly mundane, the kids like it though - if I enjoyed it more I'd make more effort.)

ANYWAY, my question is, do you use the same Dolmio sauce for spag bolognese as for lasagne? I do but wondered if this was wrong - they're now essentially the same dish at ours but with bonus cheesey sauce (made from scratch - the jar ones don't taste of owt) for the lasagne.

I do add my own onions, courgette or whatever I have to up the veg content and add peas to spag bog! I love peas.

[OrangeSwoosh]

I do 🤷

[ShirleyPhallus]

If you’re adding peas anyway then it’s so easy to switch the jarred sauce for tinned tomatoes instead

Then just add a stock cube and some dried herbs and seasoning and it’s far tastier, I promise!

[PixieLumos]

I make mine from scratch now, but did used to use Dolmio before I learned to cook more confidently. I always used the lasagne sauce they made, but funnily enough making it from scratch now I would just make up a regular bolognese sauce for it. I suppose there’s not wrong answer - but im pretty sure the dolmio lasagne sauce tasted different to to the bolognese one.

[ruddynorah]

If you're adding stuff to the sauce anyway just use tinned tomatoes!

[whensa]

ah I wasn't actually sure if they did a 'lasagne' Dolmio sauce, I might actually try it! I just have a load of jars in the cupboard of the bolog one.

[ShirleyPhallus]

If you’re adding peas anyway then it’s so easy to switch the jarred sauce for tinned tomatoes instead

I have absolutely no idea why I wrote peas, I meant onions!!

I do know that peas aren’t an integral part of bolognese sauce

[Chitarra]

I use Dolmio for spag bol but just a tin of tomatoes (and onion, garlic and tomato purée) for lasagne.

[Kwackerly]

I use Tesco own brand pasta sauce for Bolognese, usually the extra mushroom one. I do add various things to it- wine, herbs, bit of balsamic if it seems too sweet. Same price as chopped tomatoes and don't have to arse about with onion garlic etc etc.

I use extra veg version for lasagna too, works for me! I also make white sauce from scratch because it's v easy.

[raisinseverywhere]

I use normal dolmio sauce for lasagne. I don’t like cooking, so by using jars like dolmio it means that I can make a sort of homemade large lasagne or bolognese with added veg. As the dolmio is high in sugar and salt I don’t add any more to the dish.

(I use uncle bens for chilli too!)

[stucknoue]

I find it too sweet so I just make lasagna with chopped tomatoes, Italian seasoning blend, frozen garlic cubes, onions, mince and mushrooms

[whensa]

it's weird, I don't mind chopping an onion or courgette but mincing or chopping garlic seems too faffy! I will try tinned toms instead of Dolmio though!

I just had my lasagne and it was very nicely cheesey

[AtleastitsnotMonday]

If you can’t be bothered with the garlic just use the frozen ready chopped or the jar of very lazy garlic or garlic purée.

[RubbingHimSweetly]

I always use very lazy garlic. Life is too short for chopping garlic! 😂

[30to50FeralHogs]

I used to be a massive Dolmio snob. When the ad asked “whensa your Dolmio day?” I’d reply “whena hell freezes over” thinking I was so very superior for making my mum’s recipe from scratch.

Then one day I had only one tin of tomatoes, but I did have some red pasta sauce in the cupboard for making tomato pasta for DD who didn’t like Bolognese. I tried it and my Bolognese was so much nicer!!

Now I’m a fan. Not necessarily Dolmio brand, but ready made sauce in with the meat, onions, carrot, celery, oxo, tinned toms and herbs. I make a huge batch and keep half for lasagne to make it a quicker meal to prepare, then I just have to make the white sauce and layer it up.

[30to50FeralHogs]

I buy a tube of Gia squeezy garlic next to the tomato purée

[30to50FeralHogs]

And I made a tomato pasta dish the other day using a Dolmio style sauce mixed with a Lloyd Grossman one so it wasn’t too sweet. The kids all raved about it, saying it was so much nicer than usual!

[StarlingsInSummer]

I used to use Dolmio, but now I use tinned toms, tomato concentrate and passata. Plus all the usual veg - peppers, toms, carrot, mushroom, peppers, also an oxo cube, herbs, splash of Worcester sauce, red wine and so on.

[goingdownsouth]

Lloyd Grossman sweet pepper sauce is gorgeous!

[PiedNMash]

A bottle of Dolmio on average costs £1.80

OP, I stopped buying that stuff years ago. Fry 2 onions and 2 garlic heads in olive oil, then add 8 tin tomatoes (420g) own label from the supermarket. Cook through for about 20 - 30 mins then let cool, blend to puree and use/ freeze. You can use this as any base to any pasta sauce and just add whatever you like.

I now just keep this as a basic sauce. Other times I have cooked up any veg that is going or red, green and orange peppers and blended them in and freeze them.

Shop bought pasta sauces taste like crap now.

[Mrsjayy]

I also used to use dolmiofor both but it really is packed with sugar. I use passtata instead of tinned tomatoes and then you just add what you have usually garlic paste herbs and a stock cube it takes no time.

[ALittleBitAlexis]

I saw the thread title thinking it was in the Baby Names forum, I got worried!

I do a very lazy homemade sauce for both, with tinned tomatoes, onion and garlic purée instead of fresh because DH insists he doesn't like fresh I add an oxo cube for spag bol.

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

I use Dolmio or similar only if I'm in a massive hurry or if self catering on holiday and want to make life easy. I'd use the same jar for bolognese as for lasagne.

One thing I notice though is that I get double the number of portions out of 500g of mince if I make a bolognese from scratch because of all the extra veg I put in. You could obviously add all the extra veg to a dolmio jar but then you may as well just cook the whole thing from scratch anyway.

[30to50FeralHogs]

A bottle of Dolmio on average costs £1.80

A supermarket alternative is under a pound. If you’re buying good tomatoes like Napolina, they’re at least 50p a tin, often more if they’re not on offer, so adding richness and tomatoeyness (that’s a word!) for about 75p makes sense to me.