Mic’s Special Spaghetti Bolognaise

It’s coming into Winter and we all love a warming comfort meal sometimes.

Spaghetti seems to be a bit of an all over favourite and everyone has their way of making a spaghetti bolognaise. There’s also a multitude of pasta sauces on supermarket shelves these days so a new spaghetti sauce is never far away if you’re looking for it.

In my household spaghetti is a much loved meal and it’s something I love to make when we have guests for dinner because it is so easy to make it stretch a little further. Though the best thing about spaghetti in my house – leftovers for lunch!

Because my spaghetti is such  big hit with my guests as well I thought I would share with you all!

You will need:

• 1 Tbsp oil
• 500g lean beef mince
• 6 bacon rashers (diced – no rind)
• 1 x 400g tin of Diced tomatoes (I use diced tomatoes with basil and oregano)
• 1 x 400g tin of Tomato Puree
• 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
• 1 medium  brown onion (diced)
• 1 capsicum (your preferred colour)
• 1 zucchini
• 6 mushrooms
• 2 carrots
• Garlic to taste ( I use minced)
• Bay Leaves
• Italian Herbs
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Chilli (I use minced)
• 3 Tbsps Sugar (to reduce acid)

Here’s how to put it all together:

Heat oil in frypan, add mince and brown. Add onion and garlic – I use minced garlic and just shake it in from the jar but about 2 tsp, it’s garlic to taste though really and I just love garlic – fry until onion is transparent.

Turn heat down to 1-2 and add Diced Tomato, Tomato Puree, Bacon rashers and Tomato Paste. Add 3-4 Bay Leaves, depending on size, and sprinkle Italian Herbs generously over the top. Give it a stir, cover and allow to simmer.

Chop all your vegetables up. This really is up to personal taste, I have a chopper that gets all my veggies nice and small so I can hide all sorts of healthy things in my spaghetti – in the case of mushrooms I even hide them from myself.

Capsicum, mushrooms and zucchini go straight in the frypan. Chop carrots up nice and small and microwave them for 5 minutes on medium to soften them then drain and add to frypan.

Sprinkle sugar over the top of the frypan and add chilli to taste. I usually go with about 1/3 tsp depending on how many kids are eating with us. Stir the bolognaise and have a quick taste test, I will sometimes add more garlic at this point. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer.

Simmer for as long as  you can because the longer the flavours have to mature the better your spaghetti will be. Lately I will simmer for 4-5 hours and then put into a container and refrigerate to eat 48hrs later.

Serve over spaghetti noodles and with garlic bread.

This will serve 4-6 easily. If I need to make it feed more than this it is simple enough to double the mince but leave everything else the same. The other good way to make it stretch is go heavier on the pasta.

Michelle

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