This is my go to quick dinner recipe. Well, I say quick, it does take some time.
When writing this I did wonder if I had written up the recipe before. Well, I hadn’t written my recent bolognaise cooking, but had published a recipe back in March 2008. Looking at this post I realised I had posted a bolognese (note the different spelling) recipe in November 2022.
Those two recipes are very similar, but I have changed how I cook bolognaise, so here is my recent version of the bolognaise.
This serves four people.
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- 500g minced beef, I try and get 5% fat mince, otherwise the end result can be a bit greasy. If you do buy the mince with the higher fat content, I would suggest after browning the mince to drain some of the excess fat or oil from the pan before adding the vegetables.
- Splash of olive oil
- One onion, diced
- One carrot finely diced. The carrot is there to add some veg to the dish as well as flavour.
- One red pepper, diced, sometimes I only use half a red pepper.
- Handful of mushrooms, chopped.
- Splash of balsamic vinegar
- Knorr chicken stock pot, sometimes I use the beef stock pot.
- Beef stock cube.
- Dried Italian herbs
- Tin of tomatoes, puréed, sometimes I use a jar of passata.
- Tomato purée.
- Garlic purée
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I usually use a large pan with a lid, for cooking this dish. I heat the pan add the splash of olive oil and then brown off the mince until it is all done. If you have excess fat in the pan then drain the cooked mince and discard the excess oil and fat, then add the mince back to the pan.
Add the onion, carrot, and pepper. You can add extra vegetables at this point, or extra pepper. I have sometimes added courgettes or sweet potato. If you really like it, you could add celery I guess, I wouldn’t.
After a few minutes add the mushrooms.
Once the onion is soft and cooked, add the tin of tomatoes, the herbs, the tomato purée and the balsamic vinegar.
Cook for at least 30 minutes on a low heat. The plan is for all the flavours to infuse and for the beef mince to be cooked and tender.
Serve with spaghetti or a pasta of your choice. Add freshly grated Parmesan to taste, garnish with freshly topped parsley.
I did a variation adding a topping of pan fried pancetta and mushrooms to my dish. Just to be different!