Why is my spag bol never good?

[ThatLoudCat]

I'm generally a good cook. I cook from scratch everyday. A really good spag bol eludes me though. Everytime I try it's just fine. Maybe slightly watery, or too sweet, or just lacking in flavour.

I've tried many different recipes and they're never what I want them to be. As a kid, spag bol was an easy dinner that everyone's mum made every week so why can't I make it??

What does milk do to enhance the sauce? Never heard of this

an easy addition is some red pesto, the stuff from a jar from Aldi works a treat, I use an entire jar but I batch cook a massive pan

Helps to break the protein down in the meat I suspect, I believe certain Italian regions this is standard in.

I use it as it stops the spag bol being too acidy and also I think it breaks down the meat a bit. It definitely makes the spag bol better (IMHO).

Leave it simmering for a long time, plenty of garlic & herbs, lots of tomato purée, thick mushrooms. I use beef stock, lea & perrins & a dash of tabasco-I like it more flavourful. I also mix grated parmigiana (sp) into the final result, as well as on top. I like a good, fairly stodgy bolognese, not runny or tasteless

We need your recipe and method as I do a really simple spag bol and it’s always tasty

Eat it the next day to start with. But also smoked lardons, half a teaspoon of marmite and medium to high fat mince (beef and pork mixed for perfection).

Cover with a cartouche when reducing if it’s watered down too much, low heat, long simmer.

Do this one and put it in the slow cooker on low overnight. Unbeatable.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/anauthenticragubolog_66229

I’ve made cottage pie for supper and thanks to this thread realise I forgot the Worcester sauce 🙈. However, also thanks to MN, I’ve learned that decent quality tinned tomatoes makes a huge difference to the flavour of mince

Ask an Italian. You will find that they use very little mince, add a small amount of sausage meat and the rest is down to the tomatoes and herbs (as I found out when presenting an Italian with the classic English selection of ingredients and asking them to cook dinner!).

You need the carrots, onion and celery finely chopped as the base.

lots of tomato puree as well as chopped tomatoes. Tonnes garlic

We only use meat free mince but we always cook it separately first with added soya sauce for richness of flavour then it gets added to the sauce later.

cook for a while

Without knowing your recipe it is impossible to say but a few tips are:
Chop the soffrito very small and take time letting it cook down
Properly brown your meat. A beef/pork combo is good. With lardons
For depth of flavour: a few anchovies, fresh herbs, dried oregano, half a tsp of dried chillies
Fry your tomato puree before adding other liquid ingredients - chopped tomatoes/passata/stock/wine
Cook for ages

Ime it is always better the next day. So cook for hours in the oven and leave it to have the next day, it allows the flavours to develop.

Because anything which involves pasta is disgusting - hate the slimy. slippery. yucky stuff.

Look No further than Locatelli’s Ragu alla Bolognese from his Made in Italy book. Absolutely delicious.

4 hours cooking...

That's it

Some of these suggestions would make my Italian SIL explode with rage !
Soy ! Worcs sauce !

A proper ragu will start with a soffrito.
The meat will be both beef & pork mince, chicken livers & pancetta.......

The most important thing is to cook it long enough - 3-4 hours is usual.

You've obviously been fed some very badly cooked pasta.

And also you can use a good ragu to make a moussaka, or even top it with slimy tasteless mash to make a shepherd's pie.

This - 100%

Fry bacon, onions and mushrooms with the meat, add extra herbs/salt/pepper/smoked garlic/tomato puree, a jar of sauce, teaspoon of sweetener and simmer until it is thick (about an hour on a lowish heat)

browning the meat well (really well to the point it is golden brown and crispy along the edges) so it is caramelized, excellent quality ROMA tomatoes.
slowly baked in the oven for a few hours.
i like mine THICK because the pasta is always somewhat wet and absolutely hate that diluted red water at the bottom of my bowl.

I use frozen base mix (extremely small chunks on onion carrot and celery, i buy mine in asda)
Fry that in butter for about 20 minutes
Add pork and beef mince and fry for another 20 minutes
Add tomato puree and garlic
Add a tin of tomatoes and a carton of passata
Add oregano and thyme
Cook for an hour then Add red wine and a red wine stock cube and tomato puree. And leave to cook for another 90 minutes.
With the spaghetti cook it in very salted water, drain do not rinse and mix through a spoonful of butter.

It definitely needs a decent cooking time. Making it the day before you intend to use it also helps the favours develop.

Tonnes of garlic, and lots of herbs! I do mine in the slow cooker to give it time to develop the flavours

Dolmio sauce...couldn't resist.