Spaghetti Bolognese Recepies

[looney]

As taught to me by my Italian landlady in the early 1970s (and modified to take account of English supermarket produce):-

Slice an onion as thinly as possible. Chop the slices into minute pieces. Fry the chopped onion in olive oil for about five minutes. During this process, add two or three cloves of chopped garlic.

Add the meat (best quality, low fat, ground steak), together with a massive amount of dried oregano (or dried "mixed Italian herbs"). Yes - a massive amount. It makes all the difference. Stir the meat and herb mixture into the fried onion and garlic, until the whole lot is an even, non-pink colour. Salt and pepper, and a generous quantity of tomato puree.

Add a pack of Passata. Packs of passata or even canned tomatoes were completely unknown to my Italian landlady - she used bottled tomatoes, prepared during the tomato season to last the whole year.

Add NO carrots, NO peppers, NO mushrooms, NO other vegetable matter at all, NO water, NO stock, NO wine, NO other liquid. That is VERY IMPORTANT.

Stir the pot, cover it and cook for ages. The longer the better.

Eventually ... serve with freshly cooked fresh pasta. But remember it's a sauce, not a portion of meat. Don't swamp the pasta with too much sauce. If you have too much sauce, cook more pasta and invite people round to share the meal. If you have no friends, then freeze the excess sauce for future use.

Remember to sprinkle masses of fresh grated parmesan cheese over the finished meal.


PS - the real secret of this great meal is to make the pasta from scratch. All that's needed is flour and an egg and the right amount of water. Make the dough, knead it for about FORTY minutes until it's done - and when you've done that once, you'll know what I mean. Roll the finished pasta into earthworm sized pieces (use the thighs of a young virgin for best effect). Then cook in a huge pan of boiling water for about one minute. Serve immediately with the sauce.

Thats the way I cook it with 2 differences. sometimes add Mushrooms but have to be flats.

No damn pukey Parmasan.

 

[rool]

I use some onion and carrot, finely chopped and fried in oil.

I then add a mixture of minced beef and pork and fry until it just loses it's colour. Then add 16floz of dry white wine and cook on high until it has nearly evaporated.

I then add some vegetable stock and tomato puree, a bay leaf and seasoning and then cook on very low for and hour and a half.

I then take out the bay leaf add some cream and cook for another hour.

Loverly stuff

 

[rool]

What constitutes a massive amout of oregano?. A half a jar or two table spoons?.

 

[interjambo]

The basic ragù recipe provided by Lord B is fairly accurate. There is a pro carrot party in Italy (also pro celery).

Again, the key thing is the time of cooking.

Don't bother making your own pasta (unless you're a fanatic). You can probably buy fresh tagliatelle at Sainsbury's /Waitrose.

In Bologna, the home of ragù, tagliatelle would be used rather than spaghetti.

A personal favourite of mine is ragù di cinghiale (wild boar). Don't know how easy it is to get wild boar meat in the UK.

Lastly, there is a debate about the quality of mince to use. Many people opt for cheapier, fattier stuff as it gives more flavour and the long cooking time softens up any gristly bits.

 

[looney]

Half a jar.

Next person that promotes parmasan gets it!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

How much oregano?

Schwarz sell "refills" of their dried herbs. The one in my kitchen cabinet contains two refills, each in a sealed cellophane package. Each package weighs 4 grammes.

Use the whole 4 gramme package at a time.

What on earth you are supposed to fill with one of these refills is a mystery to me. Unsealing the refill and pouring it into another container will simply allow it to go stale.

If this is too much oregano for your taste, make a larger quantity of sauce and then freeze the leftovers.

If you have access to fresh herbs, use them, of course. Replace the measure known as a "massive amount" (which is only appropriate for dried herbs) with the alternative fresh herb measure, called a "fist full".

 

[rool]

Cheers.

Seeing as I have a bit of land now I have become an avid River Cottage fanatic and intend to grow as much of this kind of stuff as possible.

 

[Northstander]

I used to be a chef in the RAF and make mine to do as so....

3 Tb olive oil
3 TB butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery finely chopped
2 carrots finely chopped (size of a wooden match head)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dry oregano (more to taste) 1 tsp fresh
1/4 cup red wine (optional)
1 14 oz and 1 28 oz cans tomatoes (36 oz all together)
6 oz tomato sauce
1 lbs meat, good quality beef, minced
1/4 lb ground pork or Italian style pork sausage broken up in small pieces
salt
chili pepper or pepperoncino, small piece (more to taste)

 

[Lord Bracknell]

A personal favourite of mine is ragù di cinghiale (wild boar). Don't know how easy it is to get wild boar meat in the UK.

There's a colony of free-roaming breeding wild boar up near the Kent/East Sussex border (most of their ancestors escaped from a now-defunct wild boar farm near Tenterden, although some of them apparently jumped ship from an abattoir at Ashford).

They are, of course, a protected species - as indeed they are in Italy (despite the damage they cause to farms).

The British Wild Boar Association is promoting the farming of wild boar.

You can buy wild boar on-line from the Food From Britain website, although you may well be distracted by the offers on bison, emu, ostrich and springbok.

 

[Tooting Gull]

What a great thread.

Difficult to quibble with the sheer authenticity of Lord B's effort, but my school of cooking could be summed up by the word 'more'. More ingredients, more taste, bigger portions - just more basically, and that certainly extends to downing whatever red wine in the bottle doesn't go into the sauce during cooking. Keith Floyd had it right.

Onions
Garlic
Extra lean steak mince
Oxo beef stock
Can peeled plum tomatoes
Mushrooms
Courgette
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Tomato puree
Oregano
Basil
A lidda bidda bacon - the magic 'enhancer'
Fresh pasta
Parmesan
Red wine to taste

And perhaps something, err, light for dessert....

 

[BUTTERBALL]

Reading through this has made me damn hungry. I think I may have to try out all of these!

 

[Lush]

Glad to see that, as part of the DAFT Bints quest for total world domination, our plan for the blokes to take over all cooking duties is working. Next phase - housework.

Now - back to the Footie threads for me...

 

[Beach Hut]

Spag Bol is a quality meal, add the Parmasan cheese and here we go etc..................

 

[Yorkie]

Glad to see that, as part of the DAFT Bints quest for total world domination, our plan for the blokes to take over all cooking duties is working. Next phase - housework.

Now - back to the Footie threads for me...

I've already cracked that one Lush.
Ned makes a wonderful Spag Bol although not quite up to Lord B's standard.
I'll get him to read this thread.


El-Abd to play at left back if Harding does go?

 

[empire]

ragu ffs ,everyone seems to have a receipe so im not gonna bother mind maybe you should all come and work for me,although im the main main!ramsey eat your hatttttttttttttttttttttttttttt