Please help with bolognese sauce

[AlwaysTheMummy]

For tonights dinner I'm making spaghetti and meatballs, I've never made my own sauce before so want to get it right, can you please give me some ingredients which I can put in it which will taste nice, I've got garlic, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and mixed herbs in my cupboard so far.

Thanks in advance xx

What you've got sounds fine..have you got any onions?

and maybe mushrooms?

bay leaf - very important

I usually add a splash of worcester sauce and some balsamic vinegar to the sauce as well. For the meatballs: mince, onions, garlic, breadcrumbs and egg.

bit of tabasco and some anchovy fillets - won't taste fishy but will give sauce depth.

Garlic,Onions, mushrooms, carrots finely diced maybe a red pepper. I add oregano, tinned tomatoes, beef stock cube, squirt of tomato ketchup and a splash of worcester sauc to my spag bol.

Oh yeah and a bay leaf!

have you got any bacon? you can fry off some bacon with some finely chopped onion and crushed garlic, add tin tomatoes, add load of basil (say a tbsp)simmer for 20 mins and blend it down

or would work without the bacon

This is not essential At All, but if you chop onions, gently fry them, and then add very finely chopped stick of celery plus a very finely chopped carrot, let them gently soften for a few mins, it does make a lovely sauce base.

That said, mostly I just use what you've got plus onions and it's lovely. My one tip would be to give it a long slow cook - once it's all assembled, half an hour/40 mins on a low heat, stirring every so often and checking it's not getting too dry will make a nice thick tasty sauce.

I second the anchovy fillets, or a bit of anchovy ketchup and worcester sauce too.