Spaghetti Bolognese

[DelphiniumBlue]

I'm just making spag bol and was pondering what ingredients people use to make theirs?
I've recently started adding celery, and today I added in a carrot. Also mince, 2x tinned toms, 2x onions, 4x garlic cloves, oregano, thyme, a tiny bit of chilli and ginger, and some tomato paste. A splosh of red wine because I had some.
Someone I know mentioned that it used to take her Nonna 8 hours to make, mine takes about an hour or so. And that got me thinking about variations.
How do you do it?

Celery, onion, carrot
Beef and pork mince
Pancetta
Milk
Tomato paste
Salt and pepper

Georgia Locatelli's beef Ragu and simmer for a long time. Just perfect.

Giorgio that should be

Not remotely authentic but we started adding very finely chopped chorizo and black olives a while back and it has improved things about 100%. Although admittedly it's now a sort of generic beef-and-tomato pasta sauce rather than any pretence at Bolognese

Exactly, this, class and what do you hate, on rotation. Never were interesting and are not interesting now. In a couple of years, this site will be almost entirely have been hollowed out by huns.

onion/carrot/celery
beef shin
chicken liver
pancetta
pork mince
white wine
tin of tomatoes
cream
nutmeg

White wine, not red.
Splash of whole milk.
Beef and pork mince.

Soffritto
mince
smoked bacon
tinned tomatoes/passatta
tomato puree
mixed herbs
Oxo

refuce reduce reduce!

for veg alternative I use tinned green lentils

I've just made this one today. Takes 4 hours to cook but it's soo good and worth the time as it does us 10 portions. Some very strange ingredients in there but they all work and it's the best bolognese I've had 😋
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mutant-spaghetti-bolognese

A dollop of redcurrant jelly, or a good slosh of port!

Tablespoon of gravy granules

It completely depends what I have in the fridge. Standard is always mince of some kind, beef or a mixture of beef, turkey and Quorn, passata, onion, garlic, beef stock cube, mixed herbs and a tiny bit of sugar.

Sometimes I'll add carrot, courgette, celery, red lentils, red wine.

Other days I make it with a homemade vegetable tomato sauce which has been blended up with things like carrot, butternut squash, courgette etc. Then I might grate in some more courgette. It's an excellent way of getting us all to eat more vegetables.

Some days I'm really lazy and I use a jar sauce with a beef stock cube.

I leave it to cook for as long as possible, some days that's only an hour, sometimes a few.

I can't be arsed with being authentic, it's good enough for me regardless of what goes in it and always something I can get the kids to eat which is an absolute lifesaver.

I throw it all in a pressure cooker, it comes out perfect!

well I'm a bit of a Chuck it all in and taste it sort of person. So I 'free pour' a little in midway through cooking and some times add a bit more in towards the end. There's nothing scientific about my cooking. 🤣

I've never noticed milk in a recipe before. What do you think it add to the sauce? Richness, flavour? I can't work it out.

Marmite I’m only guessing but suspect it’s similar to the sugar, adds a bit of sweetness to offset the acidity of the tomatoes - but tomatoes these days are very sweet anyway especially if cooked long enough so I don’t think either is necessary.

Delia Smith's recipe https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/collections/delia-online-cookery-school/ragu-bolognese.

To my mind, unbeatable. Make two or three times the quantity and freeze the rest.

it's to tenderise the meat and to add some richness.

@Arnaquer where do you obtain frozen soffrito please?

54 waitrose & M&S both do it. You can use it straight from frozen

All that you said in opening post. Plus a beef oxo and some red wine vinegar

I only add a tiny bit towards the end, it just sort of smoothes it out. Really hard to describe! A bit more tender meat and a tiny bit of richness

Tesco and Asda also do frozen soffritto but they call it ‘vegetable base mix’.

Most of my ingredients have been mentioned but I will add that when seasoning I use a pinch of celery salt instead of normal salt.

Ours has mixed spice in it, I have no idea where it came from, something my mum discovered in the seventies.