SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE

I find it hard to believe that I've been writing this blog for over six months and I still haven't shared my recipe for spaghetti bolognese (or "spag bol", as us Brits call it). This was my favourite meal as a child growing up in the 1980s, probably because it was one of the most exotic meals on the menu. Back in those days, spaghetti bolognese night was the only time we ever ate pasta (unless you count canned spaghetti in tomato sauce), which I find rather incredible considering how much of the stuff my own children consume!

This recipe is probably as far from a classic Italian spaghetti bolognese (or ragu) as you can get but it's the only version I can contemplate making because it's the dish of my childhood. It's not my mother's recipe, but it tastes similar (from what I can remember) even though I've made some tweaks to make it more acceptable to my own children. They are not keen on "bits" so I've learnt to grate the carrots rather than dice them, and to use passata in place of canned tomatoes for a smoother sauce - and cleaner plates!

The recipe I've given below serves four adults, but the sauce is ideal for batch cooking so the ingredients can easily be doubled, or even tripled if you have a large enough saucepan. I also use the sauce as a base for lasagne (recipe to follow another time), which is a fabulous dish to serve when you have a crowd to feed.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Serves 4

2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 small carrots, peeled and coarsely grated (100g prepared weight)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
500g lean steak mince (5% fat)
1 reduced-salt beef stock cube
2 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dried mixed herbs (I like to use Italian seasoning)
400g passata
350g dried spaghetti
grated Parmesan cheese, to serve

Heat the oil over a low-medium heat, then add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the carrots and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for a further minute.

Increase the heat and add the mince and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until browned all over. Crumble over the stock cube and stir until thoroughly combined.

Add the tomato purée, Worcestershire sauce, herbs and passata. Season to taste with pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low-medium and simmer for at least 25 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and reduced.

Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, then add the spaghetti and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until tender but firm to the bite. Drain and transfer to dishes along with the bolognese sauce. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Tips

• There's no reason why you couldn't add extra vegetables to the sauce - mushrooms work especially well, but finely diced red peppers or celery, or grated courgette would also make fantastic additions.
• The bolognese sauce freezes successfully and is very useful to have to hand when you need a quick dinner. Freeze in single portions in freezerproof containers or freezer bags. Remember to label and date them - unless you enjoy playing freezer roulette!
• When I'm cooking meals that the children will eat, I only season with pepper as I figure that some of the ingredients I use (for example, the stock cube, Worcestershire sauce and Parmesan) are salty already.

MUSHROOM RISOTTO

Before I say anything about this recipe, let me just put this out there – I LOVE MUSHROOMS! Unfortunately for me, my family hates them with an equal passion. As a result, whenever I'm dining on my own I usually cook something that is so utterly mushroom-heavy that none of them would ever eat it. This recipe fits that bill. It's the dried porcini mushrooms that do it. Before I tried adding those to my risotto it just wasn't, you know, mushroomy enough, but the porcini give it that extra depth of earthy mushroom flavour. Occasionally, if I fancy a bit of variety, I add a couple of handfuls of spinach a couple of minutes before the end of the cooking and maybe crumble over a little blue cheese too.

Risotto isn't the quickest meal to make but it's not exactly difficult either. I certainly don't stir it constantly – I find a quick stir every couple of minutes perfectly adequate. And, of course, the added bonus of making risotto for dinner is that it gives you an excuse to open a bottle of wine – and enjoy a glass while the risotto is cooking!

Mushroom risotto

Serves 1
10g dried porcini mushrooms
1 tsp olive oil
10g butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
150g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
80g risotto rice (I use Arborio)
½ tsp dried thyme
75ml dry white wine
225ml boiling vegetable stock (I use Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon)
30g Parmesan cheese (or vegetarian alternative), grated

Place the porcini mushrooms in a cup and pour over boiling water to cover. Set aside to soak for at least 10 minutes.

Heat the oil and half the butter over a low heat in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the shallots and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute. Increase the heat slightly, add the chestnut mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and thyme.

Pour in the wine and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed. Add the stock a little at a time, stirring frequently, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding the next. This process will take a good 20–25 minutes.

Drain the porcini mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid, and slice. Add the porcini to the pan along with the reserved soaking liquid. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the liquid has been absorbed and the grains of rice are tender.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the Parmesan cheese and the remaining butter, and stir until melted. Enjoy!

BASIL PESTO

I absolutely love pesto. In our household, we mostly stir it into pasta – it makes a great change from a tomato-based sauce – but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy pesto, whether you spread it on sandwiches or bruschetta, drizzle it over pizza, or simply use it as a dip.  

I like to make my own pesto – I quite enjoy the ritual of whizzing up the vibrant green gloop in my food processor (I have a special mini one that makes the job especially easy). Of course, you can buy perfectly decent ready-made pesto in the supermarket but in my opinion home-made just tastes so much fresher. It’s a good emergency recipe too because I usually have all the ingredients to hand, including a pot of basil on my kitchen windowsill. Plus – a major bonus in my eyes – fresh pesto can be frozen, meaning I never waste a drop. I freeze mine in small (100ml capacity) pots that I originally bought when I made baby purées.

A good rule of thumb when making pesto is to use a single quantity of basil leaves and double quantities of pine nuts and Parmesan. So, for example, if you have 20g of basil leaves, use 40g of each pine nuts and Parmesan. I don’t tend to measure my oil; I just add the oil until the consistency of the pesto seems right, but the quantity given in this recipe should yield a thick but spoonable pesto – feel free to adjust to suit your own personal preference.

Basil pesto

Makes approximately 200g
50g pine nuts

25g fresh basil leaves
50g Parmesan cheese (or vegetarian alternative)
1 garlic clove, crushed
75ml olive oil (regular is fine; not extra-virgin)
Freshly ground black pepper

Dry-fry the pine nuts in a small frying pan – they’re ready when they’re golden brown and you can smell a toasty aroma from the pan. Immediately transfer them to a plate to cool down – do not leave in the pan or they’ll burn.

Pick the leaves from the basil, then wash and pat dry with kitchen paper. Cut the Parmesan into cubes (you can grate it but I’ve tried both ways and can’t see any discernible difference in the finished pesto, and grating is frankly more effort).

Put the cooled pine nuts, basil, Parmesan and garlic into a mini food processor along with half the oil. Process until everything is well chopped, then slowly add the remaining oil until the pesto has reached the desired consistency. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper – I don’t use salt because Parmesan can be pretty salty.

Hey presto – home-made pesto!

* Freeze any leftover pesto immediately in small freezerproof containers. To defrost, simply remove from the freezer and leave out on the side until fully defrosted. It’s not a great idea to defrost in the microwave because it’s too easy to overdo it and end up with a congealed lump but, if you’re in a hurry, you could pop the unopened container in a bowl of boiling water to speed up the defrosting process.