Family Favourites - Authentic Spaghetti Bolognese

At the beginning of the week I attended an Italian Specialities Masterclass with  an Italian chef and a Michelin star chef. This was a fantastic day and I have picked up so many tips.

This week I am sharing the an authentic spaghetti bolognese sauce that I was shown.

The ingredients are more or less the same as what I use normally apart from the addition of celery. I have also added red peppers as they are a vegetable that we all enjoy, plus its another vegetable that goes towards our 5 a day!

The technique of cooking the bolognese is different to what I usually do, this recipe is cooked over a long period of time, 4 hours to be precise! We all found that this cooking technique gave the sauce a lot more flavoursome.

This is what I did...

Authentic Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients

400g lean minced beef
400g pork mince
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
4 cloves of garlic
1 red pepper
1tbsp tomato puree
2 tins plum tomatoes, blended in a food processor
200mls red wine
2tspn dried oregano
Fresh basil
Salt and pepper

Method

1 - Heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large pan

2 - Gently cook the onions until soft

3 - In a food processor blitz the carrots, garlic, celery and red peppers until you have finely chopped vegetables, this will ensure they cook evenly

4 - Add the vegetables from the food processor and continue to cook until all soft

5 - Stir in the beef and pork mince and cook until the meat is browned off

6 - Pour over the wine and cook until the liquid has reduced

7 - Add the tomatoes, oregano and seasoning and bring to the boil

8 - Once it has reached boiling point reduce the heat right down and leave to simmer, with the lid off, for between 3 and 4 hours, during this time the sauce will reduce down

9 - Once the sauce is ready, mix in some ripped up fresh basil, turn off the heat and leave it to rest while you cook the spaghetti

10 - Once your spaghetti is ready return to the heat to warm up and serve with fresh basil and shavings of Parmesan cheese

If you have the time to leave this sauce it really is worth the wait. As it has been cooking for a long period of time the meat has absorbed so many flavours. This is also the bolognese sauce that is recommended for lasagne, which I will be cooking another week.

Enjoy x