As i build this blog, I imagine this page will be one that builds as I learn how to create amazing sauces and stews…the Bolognese being the ultimate saucy stew!

We are getting maximum flavour from the fewest ingredients here, but if u have an extra few pennies or a descent store cupboard, you can really develop the flavour of the dish by ‘jazzing it up’.

How do I get more veg into this recipe?

The eternal question in my family! This is a dish you can cram the veg in…

• You can add celery to the base vegetable mixture of onion and carrot to make a mirepoix. That’s just a posh name for onion, carrot and celery, chopped up small and sweated off in oil or fat.
• You can replace some of the mince with tinned lentils. Replacing half or more of the mince with lentils will not only up the veg count but reduce the overall cost of the dish which can’t be bad!
• You could grate extra veg in at the onion, carrot, celery stage. These veg might include butternut squash, courgette, broccoli root or celeriac. These veg might make the dish less classic and slightly thicker as some will cook down, but you get the veg in!

Is there a vegetarian version of this recipe?

No, but easily done. Just leave the beef and bacon out and up the veg count from tips here…

What mince do I use?

If you are supermarket shopping you want the 5% fat mince. The higher the fat level the cheaper the mice but you want to cook the fat out anyway so you might as well pay slightly more. You can add all different kinds of meat into a bolognese, different minces, meats and livers can be delicious.
You can also use a soy/vegetarian mince. Give it all a try!

Which stock do i use?

Beef, chicken, lamb or veg stock will all impart flavour, herbs and seasoning. I usually use chicken stock in this recipe.

How long do I cook this?

You can cook this dish in 20 mins if you need to get food on the table! If you have time you can let it blip away, lid on, for anywhere up to 3+ hours for a really rich, deep, intense sauce.

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Ingredients…

• 500g beef mince
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• 2 carrots, grated
• 2 tins plum tomatoes
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1 stock cube

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Method…

• Get a deep, non stick pan with a lid on a medium high heat and brown off your beef mince, then remove from the pan…

• You want to leave about 1tbsp of the beef fat in the pan, turn down the heat to medium then chuck in your onion and carrot and sweat off for 10 minutes…

• While your sweating off your vegetables, put your tinned tomatoes, garlic, oregano, Worcestershire and ketchup in a jug and blitz with a hand blender. Make sure you fill the tins half with water and add to the jug also.

• Tip your mince back into the pan, followed by the tomato mixture, and then the stockcube…

• Now you can cook this for half an hour to 3 hours and serve with spaghetti or pasta…

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Additions and Substitutions…

• Finely slice a rasher of bacon and fry off in the beef fat before u add the onion…
• If you have a herb garden feel free to add a couple of bay leaves and some hard herbs like thyme or rosemary at the veg sweating stage…
• A small glass of red wine cooked off before you add the tomatoes will give a deep richness to the dish..