Spaghetti Bolognese

[pippinsleftleg]

Please hit me with your best spag bol recipes!

I used to use this one from BBC Good Food but it doesn't have the richness of a wonderful dish from an Italian restaurant:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/big-batch-bolognese

I've stopped cooking it at home but would love to add a good one to the rotation as everyone at home will eat it

My immediate adjustments to that would be more red wine and a longer cooking time, as well as cooking the bacon fairly properly before you add the vegetables. I'd also add some beef stock - probably in crumbled cube form or the jelly things to avoid adding more water to the dish.

Equal mix of beef and pork mince-brown (I drain off the fat)
Cubed pancetta-brown and drain fat off
Onions and garlic-brown (don’t burn otherwise it will be bitter) in butter (butter offsets the tomatoes)
Add meat back in
Add diced carrots/celery/peppers
Good quality stock cube
Worcestershire sauce
Balsamic vinegar
Half pint milk (softens the meat)
When that’s cooked off a bit
Big slosh of white wine
Two tins of tomatoes
Squeeze of ketchup
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Basil
Tomato purée (I use sundried)

Then the big thing is to cook it for a long time allowing those flavours to really come out-I cook mine for a two hour minimum time.

Re season to taste

I batch cook this and put loads in the freezer. Yum-might do this later!

My own recipe using 500g of lean minced beef would have a large onion, a carrot, stick of celery and couple of large garlic cloves chopped up and fried, add beef and brown it. Add a glass of red wine and simmer for a minute or two. Add a carton of passatta (I use the one with garlic and herbs) couple of crumbled beef oxo, squirt of tomato purée, few dashes of Worcester sauce. Mix well and cook in a low oven for couple of hours.

Equal mix of beef and pork mince-brown (I drain off the fat)

Why throw away all the flavour?

I have started to make it with cubed beef, rather than mince, you can slow cook, it is really lovely.

I'd definitely add some stock cubes to that.

Have a look for classic bolognese on the same website, and make sure that you brown the meat until it's really well cooked (almost caramelised). The brown-ness will dissolve back into the sauce for flavour.
No tinned tomatoes: purée or passata only. Cook on low for as long as you can.

Make a soffrito first- basis of many Italian recipes

That is finally cut onion, carrot and celery and gently, very gently cook for at least 10 mins , maybe even 15 mins before you do anything else. The veg should be very soft, a pale golden but not obviously caramelised, (Note that many Italians would say don’t need garlic and onion- but I do add minced garlic to this mix at the very end, not at start as it will burn and be bitter)

Sauté off the lardons (do not throw the fat, this is important to the flavour) , then add mince and sauté on high till brown on outside but still pink inside. ( if you want to save some time, otherwise remove soffrito when done and add to pan). Then add about a glass of milk

Add back everything togther, add a lot of red wine, oregano, bay leaves (essential) pepper and tinned tomatoes. Add a good stock (beef) and maybe if you have a few dried mushrooms and their soaking water for a bit of Unami kick.

Cook for a LONG time on slow gentle heat (eg. 1.5-2 hours) A really long time. I use a pressure cooker to speed it up.

Add chopped mushrooms , cook at higher heat to reduce the liquid to nearly nothing. It should be a fairly dry sauce. People insist on having bolognaise with a watery gravy around it.

Season well at the end.

Tinned tomatoes- chop finely first. If you use Passata check ingredients- some contain a whole host of junk to allow for water to be added to make up volume. Make sure it is just 100% tomatoes.

@ODFOx

Have a look for classic bolognese on the same website, and make sure that you brown the meat until it's really well cooked (almost caramelised). The brown-ness will dissolve back into the sauce for flavour. No tinned tomatoes: purée or passata only. Cook on low for as long as you can.

Disagree with you..but each to their own…caramelise the lardons, but keep mince browned but rare and add milk to create an almost melting meat element. Hey ho…I guess if we were all Italian Nona s we’d still be arguing 🤣🤣

Thanks everyone (I really want a spag Bol now!) - I think I've been getting lazy an omitting things I don't have/cooking for a bit less time.

I'll do a proper one this weekend (and batch cook and freeze).

if I add mushrooms and simmer for an hour or two will the mushrooms break down? DD doesn't like them so I always have to pick them out if she can see them!

Also, never heard of adding milk, but I'll give it a try!

The milk thing works wonderfully. I like this Anna del Conte recipe www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rag_alla_bolognese_51842 which is a lot less tomatoey than the typical British version, but even if you like a lot of tomato the milk adds softness and unctiousness.

I always add plenty of smoked paprika to my spag bol. It gives it a really deep, rich flavour.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/nov/25/how-to-make-perfect-bolognese

chicken livers - friend makes amazing spag bol and lasagna and its chicken livers. Also cooks it for longer than you might think necessary.

This is the best one I have made but it takes a while so I usually make loads and freeze portions www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/next-level-spaghetti-bolognese

[quote Titsywoo]This is the best one I have made but it takes a while so I usually make loads and freeze portions www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/next-level-spaghetti-bolognese[/quote]
Was just about to add this one - made it for the first time the other week and it was so good!

No mushrooms, courgettes or anything else random.
Just soffrito, garlic, onions, pancetta, livers, minced or finely chopped meat ( either beef or beef and pork), wine, milk, tomato purée or passata, stock. Long long slow simmer.

The key is the long cooking time imo. I don't use chicken livers or red wine (allergic to both!), but my ragu comes out lovely and rich. I cook it for a few hours in the oven with no lid on.

I've been making this version from the Pasta Grannies cookbook (from YouTube) and it also uses milk which I'd never heard of before. DH says it's the best bolognese he's ever had. We've upgraded to expensive Mutti tomatoes which has also made a big difference to all of our pasta sauces (I'm vegetarian so don't eat the bolognese). We cook large batches then freeze portions flat in a freezer bag to save space and speed up defrosting (tip from Jamie Oliver).

I made a bolognese type sauce at the weekend

Minced beef and pork 20% fat
Bacon
Onion
Garlic
1 x tin tomatoes
Half a jar of passata
Tomato purée
2 x beef stock cubes
Worcestershire sauce
Red wine
Mixed herbs
Pinch of sugar

I then cook for at least an hour and a half on a low heat. I had the last of it for lunch today and it was delicious!

The other two people in this house have decided they no longer want to eat beef for environmental reasons, so I haven't made any ragu bolognese for ages and don't currently expect to do it again, certainly not regularly. I used Delia Smith's recipe and it was wonderful.. I made it in bulk as you need to put it in the oven for hours and hours on end. It was food of the Gods. I make a very nice lentil/vegetable bolognese sauce, but as an unrepentant omnivore, the version with beef, pork, chicken livers and pancetta was the dog's bollocks.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/anauthenticragubolog_66229

My dad is Italian and taught me to add milk. This recipe is closer to what I do except I use passata rather than tinned tomatoes and don’t use liver (I do add some Parma ham with the soffrito though).

I make a big batch and then just simmer it on lowest heat for 6-8 hours.

Firstly, you are never going yo get a properly unctuous ragu if you use mince.

Mine is amazing and consists of:

shin of beef/or ox cheek
Sausage meat
bacon
Chicken liver
(sometimes anchovies too for extra savouriness)
garlic
carrot
onion
celery
whole milk
white wine
nutmeg
tin of tomatoes

I cook it on the hob for 4 or 5 hours. Make a massive batch every couple of months.