I am very much an ‘ish’ person when it comes to cooking; about that much, a few of these, 100 -ish- grams of this. Well, that is when I’m just cooking for myself at least.
Anyway, one of my favourite meals to cook for my family and myself is spaghetti bolognese. Not just any bolognese, but my own, specially edited version.
My Spaghetti Bolognese is very flexible; you could add just about anything you wanted to into it. Even better, if you don’t have everything you need, it’s not a problem. Just substitute, or possibly leave it out altogether!
This recipe is super quick (about half an hour ‘ish’). What I have written down feeds my family of 5, so probably 4 adults with the possibility of a bit left over for lunch (if you are lucky), but just by adding a few extra ingredients or increasing the weight of what is needed it is pretty easy to make it slightly larger. So, without further ado, here is my recipe!
My Spaghetti Bolognese (sauce)
Ingredients
- 500 -ish- grams of beef mince
- a couple cloves of garlic, finely diced (you don’t need this but I just think it adds to the flavour)
- a dash of vegetable oil
- 2-4 carrots (depending on size), roughly sliced
- 1/2 – 1 full capsicum, roughly diced
- 1/2 – 1 large zucchini, sliced, and then chopped roughly into slightly smaller pieces
- a few tomatoes, roughly diced (or 1 tin of dices tomatoes + juice)
- a few mushrooms if you like, however you want to chop them
- 1 jar (approx. 400g) of pasta sauce (whichever brand/style you prefer)
- salt/stock (to taste)
- cheese (parmesan, cheddar, whichever)
Method
- Heat a medium/large pot between medium to high heat. Add your garlic and mince and cook until all the mince is brown.
- Add in the carrot and tomatoes to the pot and mix through, let it cook for around 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the remaining vegetables, salt and pasta sauce. I tend to need just a little more liquid, (plus the jar always has sauce stuck on the side) so I normally put a little bit of beef stock or water in the bottom of the jar, shake it up, and pour that into the pot as well. If the pasta sauce jar still has sauce stuck to the sides after that, just a tiny bit more water in the bottom, shake, and then into the pot with that as well. *
- Stir through the sauce and vegetables and cook until the carrot is just soft and/or the sauce has reduced slightly, stirring occasionally. (if you don’t want to reduce the sauce, keep a lid on the pot.)
- Serve hot on top of some freshly cooked spaghetti (which can be cooking at the same time as your sauce!), and grate some (or a lot) of cheese on top.
*be careful not to add too much extra liquid so as to make your sauce too thin and watery, if this occurs, you can add a tiny bit of cornflour as needed.
So there you have it! My super easy, quick, and definitely delicious spaghetti bolognese! I hope you all enjoy!
Yours faithfully,
Grace