Share your best ragu/bolognese recipe

[nappyaddict]

Here is mine:

I use a variaton of this recipe depending on what we do and don't have in. Sometimes I use more meat if I want it a bit meatier and just increase the amount of passata but keep everything else roughly the same.

3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or oil from sundried tomatoes
2-4 tbsp butter
1 onion sliced
1 carrot finely chopped or grated
1 celery stick chopped
1 pepper (red, yellow or orange) deseeded and sliced
1/2 butternut squash chopped or grated
1 courgette chopped or grated
125-250ml dry white wine
40-55g smoked back bacon, prosciutto or pancetta chopped or minced (or a mix is nice)
100g minced beef
100g minced pork
30-120ml double cream
300ml passata or 1 of plum tomatoes blended and sieved (the seeds make it bitter if you don't sieve)
4 teaspoons marigold swiss bouillon powder or 1 knorr beef stock pot
10-15 cherry vine tomatoes or sundried tomatoes cut in half
2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
2 squares of 90% dark chocolate (optional)
1-2 tablespoons of cream cheese (optional)
Parmesan (I sometimes mix it with extra mature cheddar)

Sweat onion for 10 mins in olive oil and butter. Remove onions from the pan and set aside. In that pan sweat the other vegetables for 10 mins.

In a different pan pour in a good slug of wine to deglaze the pan. Add bacon, prosciutto or pancetta and fry for a couple of mins to release the fat.

Add mince. (I sometimes add 1-2 tablespoons of cream cheese here) Somehow the wine seems to prevent the mince from clumping. Add double cream spoon by spoon whilst stirring, fry until grey, not brown. Keep stirring with a fork to avoid the mince clumping together. Simmer until liquid has almost completely reduced. Add rest of wine and simmer until almost completely reduced. You need the wine to evaporate before adding the tomatoes else you will get a metallic taste.

Add marigold swiss bouillon powder or stock pot, passata or blended toms, vine toms, onions, veg from the other pan and chocolate if you are doing so.

Stir and simmer for 15 mins. Stir again and simmer for at least another 15 mins. If you have time simmer for another 4-5 hours, or even better put in the slow cooker on low all day. Towards the end turn the heat up and cook it to the point where it is almost (almost!) burning to give it a lovely caramelised, roasted sauce. Season with black pepper, add knob of butter and cheese.

Yum!

Ooh, yours looks nice, I use the Nigel slater one which has fewer ingredients.

Wow that's a lot of ingredients for a spag bol... Mine is:

2 onions
6 mushrooms
1 carrot
1 stick celery
lots of crushed garlic
all of the above chopped v finely and softened in olive oil
good quality lean steak mince 250g browned in the above
squirt of tomato puree
glug of lea & perrins
Pepper and oregano
glass of red wine
mix it all together and then add 2 tins of chopped toms
Simmer for a very long time then add a squirt of ketchup near the end.

yum.

We (or should I say my DH) make the Antony Carluccio recipe - it doesn't have any passata or garlic in at all and despite that it is bloody gorgeous. It is such a cheap dish to make as it uses so little meat per portion - it is really rich so you don't need loads. We make it in big batches and put at least 6 meals worth in the freezer.

We make it with beef rather than veal.

This is the recipe:

"This is by far the best-known bolognese recipe which, to be genuine, has to be made with fresh tagliatelle. Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
500g (1lb) fresh tagliatelle or 400g dried egg tagliatelle
60g (2oz) parmesan cheese, grated
FOR THE RAGU
55g (1.9oz) butter
55g (1.9oz) minced prosciutto fat or pancetta
1 large carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
100g (3.5oz) minced lean veal or beef
100g (3.5oz) minced lean pork
1 glass of dry white wine
A little beef or chicken stock
3 tbsp tomato paste salt and pepper
METHOD
To make the ragu, heat the butter in a large pan, add the prosciutto fat or pancetta, carrot, celery and onion and fry gently for about 10 minutes.
Add the minced meats and stir with a wooden spoon to break them into smaller chunks.
Cook for about 15 minutes to brown the meat, then add the wine and bubble for a few minutes to allow the alcohol to evaporate.
Stir in a little stock to prevent the mixture sticking to the pan. Stir in the tomato paste and dilute with a few tablespoons of stock. Leave to simmer for 90 minutes, adding more stock if the mixture becomes dry. Then add a little more stock to obtain a smooth consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Cook the tagliatelle in boiling salted water until al dente, then drain and mix with the sauce. Serve with parmesan cheese."

Is tomato paste different to puree? I don't like puree as I think it tastes metallic and bitter.