Spaghetti Bolognese is a popular dish across Europe, the USA, Australia and as far as I know, much of the rest of the world, and just as it is popular in many countries and households so, there are just as many recipes for it.
Spaghetti Bolognese, however, is not truly an Italian dish. Any self respecting Italian will politely explain that if you are making a rich meaty sauce, such as Bolognese, then you need to marry it with a broad pasta tube which is capable of swallowing the sauce whole! I’m not very well up on Italian pasta names as I have never lived in Italy, and indeed, despite it is only a few hours drive away, have rarely visited it. All that having been said, I love the textures and flavours generated by the thin spaghetti and the rich sauce.
The next thing is that, apparently, a Bolognese sauce should have little if any tomato content. Well again … I’ve never been served Spaghetti Bolognese in Italy (surprise surprise), but I have eaten it in France, Germany, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the USA and every time it has been a delicious tomatoey meaty sauce!
Finally, I know that a true Bolognese sauce takes many hours to make. I never have enough time, although I do prepare this sauce in advance and leave to develop overnight. I finish the sauce, store in the fridge, and then gently reheat it when I’m ready to serve. But I also know that, following the recipe and cooking the sauce immediately before serving is great too.
Many years ago I had a young lady staying here with me and one day I duly served my version of Spaghetti Bolognese. She watched me cook it with interest and not a small smile on her face, before announcing that what I had made looked delicious but was not Spaghetti Bolognese, which got us into a big discussion about what it truly was. However I duly continued with my recipe and after lunch there were several clean plates. It’s also true to say that the same afternoon, (It was the middle of summer) we were all sunbathing by the pool when the said young lady got in the pool, immediately complaining that my lunch was making her sink. I simply pointed out that as she was swimming sans maillot, she didn’t have the added buoyancy afforded by such apparel.
So here is my recipe for a dish I better call
Spaghetti with a rich meaty sauce
Serves 4 people
Preparation about 15 minutes
Cooking time about 30 minutes
For the Sauce
400g minced beef (lean)
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cloves of Garlic (finely sliced)
4ozs mushrooms (chopped)
4 rashers streaky bacon
Herbes de provence
Tinned tomatoes
Tin Tomato puree (4oz)
Cup of sweet white wine
Grated parmesan cheese
For the Pasta
You need a pasta that is large enough to hold the meaty sauce, or, do like I do and ignore everybody and use Spaghetti
Method
Chop the bacon into small pieces then In a large casserole, fry till crisp,
Add the minced beef and onions and fry everything till the onions are translucent
Add the apple, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces
Add the wine, garlic, herbes de provence and tinned tomatoes
Bring to the boil and stir in the tomato puree
Bring to the boil again and add the mushrooms
Simmer about 15/20 minutes(while you cook the pasta)
(At this point the sauce can be kept overnight to allow the flavours to develop)
Bring a pan of water to the boil
Add the pasta and boil for 7 to 10 minutes depending on preference
Drain pasta and rinse with more boiling water, then add a small amount of olive oil to the pan and heat. Add the pasta back into the pan with the oil and shake pan to coat pasta
Serve pasta, and sauce, and sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top
I often add chorizo, but on this occasion I knew one of my guests didn’t like Chorizo so I omitted it.
I served it with garlic bread and a glass of wine!
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did
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