FAMILY BOLOGNESE

Every family has a version of Bolognese sauce the world over. I’m no different I have a particular method of cooking this family style Bolognese. I understand why variations have drifted away form the authentic recipe. Personally I’m all for adjusting the recipe to suit your needs. It could be adding lots of extra vegetables for the kids or just tweaking the standard recipe because you may be bored.

Tweak the recipe however you like. However, I will insist you implement these three (3.) steps in the cooking method. You can reference this in the video.

1. When you cook the onion, celery, carrot and garlic at the beginning, do so with a tight fitting lid on. You want to trap in the steam and let it condense and trickle back down into the veg. If it begins to stick add a little water. Cook until the veg is tender. This will really add some intense flavour to the sauce.

2. When you cook the mince you will notice it going quite watery. Thats fine, there may be a lot or a little water depending on the quality of the mince. Simply evaporate the water out. And continue cooking the mince. Only when all the water has evaporated out will the mince begin to brown. The browning of the mince will also intensify the flavour of the sauce.

3. Give it time. The longer the better at a minimum cook for 2 hours but 4 hours on low heat with a tight fitting lid is better. If you want a quick meal cook up a big batch, portion into smaller containers and freeze them. Defrost as needed.

FAMILY BOLOGNESE

Recipe by Chris McIntyreCourse: MainCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Beginner

Servings

1

100g serve

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

3

hours 

Calories

117

kcal

Ingredients

• 1 Onion

• 1 large Carrot

• 2 Celery stalk

• 2 clove garlic
  

• 500g Minced beef

• 800g Tomato pasata

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Salt and Pepper

Directions

• Fine dice onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Add it all to a pot with a little extra virgin olive oil. Place on a tight fitting lid to trap in the steam / water and cook on a low heat until tender. If veg begins to stick add a little water to the pot.
• At the same time use a cast iron pan to brown the minced meat. It is important to evaporate all the water out of the mince meat. Only when all the water has evaporated from the mince meat will it start to brown. (As shown in the video).
• When meat has browned add about 250g of tomato passata to the browned meat in the cast iron pan. Continue to brown whilst evaporating the water out of the tomatoes.
• At the same time add the rest of the tomatoes to the tenderly cooked veg and start to simmer on low heat with a lid on. When the meat has browned with the water from the tomatoes evaporated add it to the pot of veg and tomato. Deglaze the cast iron pan with water or stock and also add this to the pot.
• Add a little salt and pepper to taste and continue to cook the sauce on low heat with a tight fitting lid for a minimum of 2 hours. Cook it for 4 hours if possible. Stir regularly to prevent catching on the bottom of the pot.

Recipe Video

Notes

• Try adding Minced pork to the recipe. 50 / 50 ratio.
• If you don’t have another pan to brown the mince, remove the tenderly cooked veg from the pot, brown the beef in the pot without the lid add the tenderly cooed veg back to pot once the meat has browned.
• When simmering the sauce, at any stage, if the sauce is looking a too thick add a little water. If the sauce looks a little watery remove the lid and evaporate the water out of the sauce.
• Double, triple or quadruple the recipe to make a big batch. Once cooked portion the Bolognese sauce into smaller containers and freeze. Defrost as needed.