How To Make Bolognese Sauce
PUT DOWN THE DOLMIO
Put down that jar of Dolmio and save those pennies, make your own bolognese sauce. grab a tin of basic tomatoes (35p). An onion along with some store-cupboard essentials its far to expensive in the first place plus its full of other things, you can make a simple delicious tasty sauce for less than 49p. Let me show you how to make a bolognese sauce.
Bolognese sauce or ragu what ever you call it its the base sauce for so many things. With this base sauce you can make many a wonderful dish with just a few key essential ingredients.
- 1 onion
- Olive oil
- Garlic (as many cloves as you like)
- Tin of tomatoes
- Herbs ( oregano, basil, parsley )
- salt n pepper
- sugar
- 500g of pork 500g of beef minced.
- Red wine (half a glass)Don’t forget this as it does make a difference
HOW TO MAKE BOLOGNESE SAUCE
Finely chop the onion and garlic then fry in the the olive oil and once sweated down a little add the tin of tomatoes. Then add the herbs salt and pepper and the half a glass of wine. Allow to cook down and reduce for at least an hour. The longer you leave it to reduce the more the taste develops. Double, triple quadruple the quantities as its perfect for freezing and the great thing is when you reheat the flavour is more intensified. So make a big batch for midweek meals (you can cook it from frozen, place in saucepan and gently simmer to thoroughly heated through.)
There are so many ways that you can add extra flavour, add chorizo to the onion whilst sweating them imparts fantastic flavour. Add a squirt of tomato puree to add a little richness. One thing you can add at the very start of the cooking process is 3 or 4 anchovies. I know what your thinking, fish in your sauce but actually it has a great salt content and flavour and once it has cooked out you will not be able to taste the fish. (I promise) There is the purist out there who insist that you should start of by sweating off a mirepoix which is Onion, Carrot and Celery. Do you really need all that, No I Don’t think so. Try adding a little thyme which adds a different dimension. One of our favorites is to add a big teaspoon of lazy garlic.
HOW TO MAKE The Best Spag Bol Recipe
Lets start with the more common dish, it doesn’t mean that they are any less tasty, the staple of midweek tasty dishes
How To Make Bolognese Sauce :Spaghetti Bolognese
What to use in your bolognese, Beef ! just beef or do you go half and half, if you haven’t tried it or even heard of it then try it with 50% beef and 50% pork mince. It does add a different taste as the pork mince contains quite a bit of fat and there is always flavour in fat. Spaghetti Bolognese is the classic dish that every man, woman, nan, auntie and household has their very own version of. Of course our own version is the best.
The Best Recipe For Spaghetti Bol
The reason it is the best is because of the versatility of the recipe, you can add more of what you like. You can take away what you dont and then add your very own twist. We do like to add either soya sauce or Worcester sauce to our mince as it cooks. Deep deep flavour, it depends what we have in the fridge as any leftovers get chucked in. Some recipes call for chunky chuck beef (well the Welsh Italians do from my experience)
THE PASTA, well its your choice, does the expensive designer pasta taste better ? not really the basic pasta cooked in salted boiling water is just as good, it is well worth investing in you own pasta maker machine. Flour, eggs water and a little work gets you fresh pasta and the kids can help to.
Dont forget the parmesan cheese and try to get the real stuff, use less and grate fresh when you need it as it taste so much better. Make sure you have some leftover bolognese mix and then you can add a few tortilla chips and cheese for a late night snack. (buy the basic tortilla chips, a big bag for 50p)
How To Make Bolognese Sauce :Lasagne
The very same mix of mince as you use for your bolognese, it even has the very same pasta in the dish, ok its a different shape but its still pasta, the additions to this classic are white sauce and extra cheese on top, you can of course add extra vegetables (courgettes, carrot, peppers and mushrooms to bulk out the dish) The White Sauce just have a go at it rather than buy that nasty jar (yuck). You can add a tablespoon of mustard powder to the white sauce mix as it gives it a nice edge to the taste and an amazing colour to the sauce.
What ever you do don’t forget to add your favourite cheese to the top, add a little parmesan if you can. I use the very end bits of the parmesan cheese, the bit thats a little to hard to grate. Slice very finely with a sharp knife and once its melted and cooked it tastes lush.
Plain Pasta
Just add pasta any pasta and I mean any pasta. The kids love it, the basic sauce on pasta, spaghetti, tagliatelle, fusilli,Fettuccine and then the ravioli pasta we usually get from Aldi for a pound. It takes about 10 mins to make. Boil kettle, place boiling water in a hot saucepan (put the pan on the heat while the kettle boils) add salt, add pasta, at the same time you put the kettle on put your ragu sauce from the freezer into a pan on a medium heat. When the pasta is cooked, drain and then add to the pan with the sauce is cooking. Tip onto a warm plate add black pepper and parmesan, simple done tasty.
What do you use your Bolognese sauce for ?
looking for a full Italian Meal Idea
Freezing The Bolognese Sauce
People often ask if you can freeze the Bolognese sauce, my answer is of course you can freeze the sauce. This s one of my perfect midweek cheats when. have the kids. The great thing about frozen Bolognese is that even if I have forgotten to take it out of the freezer I can still cook it in 20 minutes.
I usually make enough for about 4 or 5 batches, 1 for the actual day and then the others I place in freezer bags and flatten them out so its easier to freeze. In a rush to make dinner, get a pan of water on the boil and then get the bolognese out of the freezer. Empty the Bolognese into a pan and put on a very low heat and occasionally stir until it breaks down. One the water is boiling put your pasta, trust me by the time the pasta is cooked the Bolognese sauce will be cooked through. Now turn the heat up a little more and keep stirring, 20 mins and dinner is done and you have spaghetti Bolognese. A great budget meal for winter.
Yes it is perfect for freezing, ideally freeze flat in freezer bags and then you can store more in each drawer
The meat Bolognese sauce will happily sit in the freezer for up to 3 months
It takes around 20 mins to cook the meat Bolognese from frozen
Happiest in the kitchen feeding the 3 children who are constantly hungry. Lucky enough to have worked in a Pro kitchen on a voluntary basis to learn the tricks of the trade.. Buckinghams The restaurant with one Table. With Chef Nick Buckingham.(RIP)