To think that when you make a spag bol

[HelloCanYouHearMe]

You fry the mince off first?!

DP rarely cooks & tonight has decided to do spag bol and is following a Jamie Oliver recipe (which in itself is U afaic)

The recipe has him frying off onion, celery, carrot, garlic... so far, so good. Then it goes on to say to throw in the minced beef & 2 cans to tomatoes, water from 2 cans and simmer for an hour.

The hour is up & DP asked me to taste - the casserole dish is swimming in liquid & tbh all i can taste is powdery boiled mince

wondering

You cook the tomatoes on low heat for hours. It should get thick and flavour intense. My nonna cooks tomati sauce the whole day...

Ill admit to not paticuly likeing cooking or being v adventurouse

*tomato

The recipes I use say to brown off the mince with salt and pepper, then to simmer in a bit of milk with a bay leaf until all the liquid has gone (in order to soften the meat), then tomato purée and Passata or canned tomatoes (plus wine if I have it).

1hortio

I may give this a go next week.

Funnly enough my spag boll is loved the most by family and friends......

Best not offer any dinner vites lol

1horatio it was cooked for an hour as per the recipe and it was understandibly, swimming - i told him to leave it on the heat for another 45mins to try and get rid of some of the liquid.

DP asked me this morning what time he should start cooking in order to serve at 7pm. I said noon..... he scoffed and went off to look through his JO bible cookbook and came back with said recipe.

I want him to cook more to be honest, so ive done the minimum to try rescue this and shall do no more. When it is served, i'll go ott with the parmesan and try not to chew too much

And next time, will point him in the direction of my italian cookbook for inspiration!

a proper one should be cooked down for at least a couple of hours, and certainly would not contain peppers and leeks or a tin of tomatoes

My 'everyday' spag bol contains (in addition to mince), tinned tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, carrots, celery, chickpeas and peppers.

I'm sure my everyday versions of lots of meals wouldn't live up to the proper versions either but i'm cooking quick and healthy family grub, not feeding a group of Italian chefs

I don't have two hours + to wait for a sauce to cook, what a waste of time!

green it might be tasty but that is not a 'spag bol' I can assure you, whoever you are feeding.

You don't have to stand and watch it!

can you leave it for tonight - the fat might rise to the top and you can skim it off? Leaving it for a while will allow the sauce to thicken too - might make it vaguely palatable?

1horatio....calm down!! Totally agree that for a proper sauce it needs to be cooked for a long time (if I have the time on a weekend I stick.it in the oven for as long as possible on a low heat). But sadly life is such that you don't always have the time, but on the brightside there are usually leftovers that get cooked the next day as well.so it usually tastes better the next day...

Even when you slow cook bolognese you are meant to brown the mince first!

The easiest way to 'rescue' this meal would be to have something different tonight, keep cooking the bolognese, and have it tomorrow night.

what's with all the Jamie hate?

Some us bare a grudge after he told us poor people would be healthier if they sold their big flat screens and spent £30 on ingredients for a budget dinner (and twenty quid on his book).

Oh and to nick stuff, I mean forage in our local park for basil leaves or other stuff. (Used gum coated in crack crumbs candles anyone?)

As for mince I brown it.

Then I rinse it, I am an unabashed rinser.

If all else fails sling in half a bottle of red wine!

I use this recipe all the time and although it doesn't say to brown mince I always do. I also simmer it for a good few hours and it's a family favourite.

Canapés not candles

wonderin

Maybe it depends on what you expect? Ragù alla bolognese is for me personally not what you described.

Which is why I said that to me it sounds like you made some sauce. Which... trying to keep an open mind here... may taste lovely. But just isn't what I personally would expect. I'm actually trying to imagine my family's reaction to it

hello

Well, oops? ;) Parmesan will make it better! Or maybe you could bake it? Cover it in loads of molten cheese? Or... idk. Yes, I think a genuine Italian cookbook sounds like a great idea!👍

I always slow fry the mince and fry off the fat till it forms a cooked layer on the bottom of the pan then I scrape that off and stir it back into the mince so its flavoured but not at all greasy Marco Pierre White taught me that trick on YouTube he says never throw the fat away or your throwing away the flavour, always cook out the fat

I brown the mince, add chopped onion, garlic and celery, and pancetta, keep going, drain off the fat, add peppers, add a tin of tomatoes, seasoning, maybe some red wine, then leave it on the hob on low for a couple of hours.

dont

I should calm down, shouldn't I

I'm not even upset at the person cooking the sauce but at the cookbook writer... it's just so sad...

get it into a shallow roasting tin, top of a hot oven and brown the hell out of it....stir the brown bits in frequently.

and set fire to his jamie oliver book.

Why on earth all the water? I rinse out the tomato tins with a little red wine & use no extra water at all in bolognese.

1horatio if we can't get excitable over food what can we get excitable about? Understandable, but just breathe....