IN MY OWN KITCHEN

Recipes

Bolognaise

Recipe Type: Lunch or Dinner
Cuisine: Italian
Author: Luisa
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins
Total time: 1 hour 45 mins
Serves: 4-6
Easy and delicious bolognaise great for sauce on its own or lasagne
Ingredients
  • 500g grass fed beef mince (if it is in the budget)
  • 1 red onion finely diced
  • 5 cloves fresh garlic finely chopped (fresh is best)
  • 1 carrot grated
  • 2 stalks celery finely chopped
  • handful of herbs (rosemary, oregano, thyme or herbs of your choice)
  • Splash of red wine (optional)
  • 1 bottle tomato passata
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in large saucepan
  2. Add onion to pan and saute until transparent
  3. Add garlic and cook until golden – don’t be tempted to add garlic with onion, it can burn before it cooks
  4. Season the onion and garlic mix with salt and pepper
  5. Add mince in small batches and brown – adding all at once will cool the pan down too much and it will stew instead of browning
  6. Add carrot and celery, stir well and allow to simmer adding the passata and paste, stir well
  7. Add half a passata bottle of water to the mix (fill bottle halfway, place lid on, shake shake shake and tip in)
  8. Add chopped herbs and allow to simmer for at least 1.5 hours (the flavour will develop and the sauce will reduce and thicken)
  9. Checking seasoning, add fresher herbs (basil and parsley) at end and serve
  10. Yum!
Notes
– When adding herbs for the simmer use hard woody herbs which love long cooking such as thyme, oregano and rosemary[br]- Add basil and parsley at the end if you wish – these herbs benefit from a quick cook and lose fragrance if simmered too long[br]- Add tinned chopped tomato instead of passata for a chunkier sauce[br]- Add mexican spices and chilli powder plus some black or mixed beans to turn it into mexican style mince for tacos or chili con carne.