Tomatoes and Light Jazz
I can make a few things really well. They turn out a little differently each time I cook them; whether that’s due to variation in available ingredients, my mood, or something lent by the time and place in which I perform the act of creation, each instance, each iteration, allows for a slightly different and so wholly new experience.
There’s no killer secret to a great bolognaise sauce. However, I do find that carrots (to offset the acidity of tomatoes), good quality (that is, non-supermarket) mince, and at least half an hour to simmer down from ‘oh man I added way too much liquid’ to a rich, thick sauce all improve the flavour.
If you’re willing to eat nutmince (the texture is similar, but the taste is not really my thing), you may use that instead of meat mince. Alternatively, I’ve found adding a can of cannelli beans and a can of kidney beans and a can of corn kernels also work pretty well.
Ingredients used in this particular iteration of spaghetti bolognaise:
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 onions, diced
- 2 carrots, grated
- ~400g beef mince
- 2 birds-eye chillis
- 1 tablespoon each of dried oregano, thyme and basil (fresh is better!)
- generous turns of pepper grinder, big pinches of salt
- one ripe tomato, roughly diced
- 1 can tomatoes
- 2 cups beef stock
- splash of red wine
- lots of olive oil
Best with thicker pasta. Freezes like Arnold Schwarznegger in that terrible terrible Batman movie that they killed Alfred in - by which I mean well. It freezes well.