Spaghetti Bolognese

This recipe is my family’s favourite of all the recipes that I make. I make a huge batch every month or so and then freeze it as shareable portions in freezer bags. On busy days we defrost and it makes dinner a simple affair either on a baked potato or over pasta. Our babysitter also gets a portion (on date nights)! Try this as the meat in a lasagne too.

Ingredients

• 2Kg of the leanest minced beef you can find (5%)
• 2 big onions diced finely
• Half a clove of garlic, chopped finely
• 500g of mushrooms
• 3 cans of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 bottle of ruby port (hell yeah)
• a good squirt of tomato puree
• a decent sprig of rosemary chopped finely
• three bay leaves
• 10 carrots chopped into disks
• a whole celery chopped finely
• baby sweetcorn chopped
• a bottle of red wine (cheap plonk is fine)
• a good dash of Worcestershire Sauce

The cook

1. Start by cooking the mince in a deep frying pan with a little oil. We want to get the meat brown and the fat cooked off. Drain the fat away so you are left with the lean cooked meat. Put the cooked mince to one side as you will add to the bolognese in a moment.
2. I tend to prepare onions, garlic, mushrooms ahead of the cook as it cooks quicker than I can prepare.
3. Heat up some oil in the pot (at this point I have the pot at a high heat)
4. Add the onions and garlic once the oil is up to temperature and stir them to stop them sticking. You want to cook them until they have softened.
5. Add the mushrooms and keep stirring until the mushrooms have softened
6. Now add in the chopped tomatoes, the minced beef, the ruby port and the tomato puree
7. Turn the heat down to a low level for simmering
8. At this point it is all about getting the rest of the ingredients added:
   • chopped rosemary
   • bay leaves
   • carrots
   • celery
   • baby sweetcorn
9. Now let this simmer for 20 mins
10. Now add the bottle of wine and let this simmer with no lid on the pot
11. As soon as this has reduced (expect an hour or so) it should be ready to serve with pasta and topped with cheddar cheese
12. Remove the bay leaves as they can make it taste too strong

Let this cool off overnight with the lid on, then bag it up and freeeze: remember to write on the bag what it is…