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

I use Nigel Slater's spaghetti bolognese recipe www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spaghettibolognese_89200

You fry the veggies first in that one too, it is delicious but I add Worcestershire sauce for extra meatyness

Am I the only one thinking of Rachel trifle?

Omg I'm pregnant and hungry and have literally not stopped thinking about spag bol since I read this thread

midgwit

Thanks :)

I was too lazy to google it

I always brown mince, then put it in the slow cooker.

I'm wondering if the recipe is meant to read as :-
A) add mince to the fried veg and brown off at that stage; and
B) add the amount of water stated then cook with lid OFF to reduce it?

Not snobbish at all Pyongyang.

Italians would use about a fifth of the quantity of mince anyway that a UK spag bol would have. Dp and his family are always amazed at how meat-heavy UK sauces are. My MIL will feed 14 of us on less than a 1lb of mince. It's just the way they do it, sauces are much more liquidy. I suppose that's why they would never (could never) place the pasta round the edge, the sauce would leak out and over the sides if you didn't mix it in.

You done put garlic in bolognaise? I do by the fuck load! Celery in spag Bol . Never heard of it

Garlic is a 'random'' ingredient?

Someone putting garlic in an Italian recipe: imagine!!!

Most people put garlic in bolognese sauce. I know it's not traditional, and is subject to considerable debate, but the fact is that most people like meaty, tomatoey pasta sauce to have garlic in it.

Even the Angela Hartnett recipe that I linked to above includes it, and she has Italian heritage that influences her cooking.

I usually get the 5% fat mince from Aldi, which costs £2.99 for 500 g, so a good choice on a budget. We also have a local farm shop that sells similar mince at a similar price.

Celery is also traditional in bolognese sauce. It's part of the trinity of vegetables that starts off lots of sauces/stews (celery, carrot and onion).

You're brave with that admission Perfumista. Stand by for lots of snidey posts about homeopathic mince from comparatively wealthy and greedy people who have no understanding of how meat is a big luxury for lots of people and most recipes traditionally have small amounts of meat for flavour plus lots of vegetables, pulses or pasta etc to provide the bulk of the meal and make it affordable.

"You done put garlic in bolognaise? I do by the fuck load! Celery in spag Bol confused. Never heard of it"
Garlic is not traditional in bolognaise. Celery is. You start by softening celery, carrots and onions- it's called soffrito and where. Lot of the flavour comes from. Jamie is evangelical about not browning meat- it certainly works in his beef casserole.

The OP's dh'a sauce just needed cooking down.

And I agree- British people have completely the wrong sauce:pasta ratio. But they are the same with rice:Chinese food and rice:Indian food as well.

Celery, onion and carrot. That's what belongs in there.

As I said, I sometimes put in some leek as well, which is really not traditional. I just like leek. So, why not add garlic? But it's about as traditional as adding leek.

I was taught by an Italian lady to make it.... you brown the mince first and you can add an oxo whilst browning. I then pop the mince in a bowl while I fry the onion and mushrooms (no carrots or bloody celery..... Fucking blasphemy in my eyes!)
Then add the mince back in.
I then add a tin of chopped tomato 🍅 and then add some Italian herbs.

I never buy dolmio as it's too sweet and sugary and thick.

The Italian lady was lying to you!

I sometimes put garlic in mine too. But it's not a bolognaise without soffrito. It's a school dinner.

Your dh added way too much water. Lentils may have help

dizzy

Well, there are thousands of recipes. But I've never seen any of the Italian ladies in my family do anything like this.

I'm veggie and brown my veggie mince before adding the liquid. I sometimes use garlic. I will always use celery if I have it. I often add flat leaf parsley if I haven't. I sometimes use fresh home grown tomatoes, other times, passata and sometimes cheap chopped veg. I add marjoram instead of oregano as I have about a gazillion plants in the garden. I often make it in 30 mins and bang it over some cooked spaghetti and serve. I sometimes cook it and let it cook down for hours.

Either way it is bloody fantastic.

Sedano is celery by the way.

Yes the soffrito is key. But it is not great chunks of carrot and celery and onion, they are very finely chopped or even grated.
Italian lady definitely lying. No mushrooms! No oxo! No tin of tomato!

Your dh added way too much water. Lentils may have helped make it less watery but adding too much water makes it taste pretty grim.

I don't brown the mince, I make a sauce with tomato onion carrot and a dash of red wine. I then add the mince to cook on lowest heat for at least an hour or slow cook if I can. Don't add any water at all.

I brown my mince too, had it once in the slow cooker, not browned beforehand as the hob was being replaced, i hated it, texture was awful.

at Barbara....

Garlic and its uses is another big mystery to Italians. (or all the ones I've met in these 23 years) They are astonished by how much we use in the UK, which always makes me smile as I am old enough to remember Brits in the 70s going on about how Italian and Spanish food wasn't for them what with all the garlic etc.

Dp and other Italians I know would never dream of putting garlic in meat sauces, but I do because I like it. Actually, they would rarely, if ever, put garlic and onion together at all.

Funnily, we are having "bolognaise" today and dp just came back from the shop. He has bought 200g of mince and that will do the 3 of us today and tomorrow.

(It's a bit like a MN chicken )

Brat- I grate the soffritto because I haven't got dp's skills with the chopping knife. Mine end up like chunky casserole bits so I invariably grate.