Bolognese Sauce

First up is a staple in our house, a simple Bolognese sauce, which can be served with any type of pasta including spaghetti, twists (Fusilli), tubes (Penne), bows (Farfalle) or shells (Conchiglie). You can also add some bechamel sauce to make a lasagna (we might cover this one later)

All of the sizes and weights are approximate as half of the fun of cooking is to see what you can do with the ingredients you have in the house and making them taste good rather than sticking rigidly to a recipe.

This should serve 4 easily with left overs you can freeze for another day.

What you will need for the sauce:

350g of minced beef
1 Medium / large Onion
1 Red pepper seeded
1 Green pepper seeded
1 Yellow pepper seeded
2 Garlic cloves
1 Carrot - any size
4 - 6 mushrooms depending on size and if you like mushrooms!
2 Teaspoons of oregano
2 Tins of chopped tomatoes
1 squeeze of tomato puree


How to make your Bolognese sauce:

I find it easier to chop everything first then cook, but if you are in a rush you can do several things at once!

Chop the onion, peppers, carrot and mushrooms in to small chunks - how small is up to you as we have small children we find it best to chop into small squares about the size of a 5p piece.

Place the mince in a large pan - non-stick if you have it but it isn't important. You will notice that we haven't included any oil in the recipe as mince tends to be quite high in fat so once it starts to cook you really don't need any.

Keep stirring the mince until brown, you will notice quite a lot of fat in the pan once the mince is brown. You can either drain this fat off, if you are feeling really healthy, or leave in for a bit of extra taste.

Once browned crush the garlic cloves and add to the pan along with the chopped onion. Stir these together over a high heat until the onion starts to change colour (it will start to go a bit see through). You only need to soften the onion don't cook it too long or it will burn.

Add the chopped peppers and carrot to the mixture and stir in well. If the mince has gone a bit dry at this point you can add a splash of water to stop it sticking. (You see you really don't need any oil unless you like your food greasy).

Keep stirring the mixture and add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have started to turn a dark grey.

Add the tinned tomatoes, puree and oregano and stir well.

Cover and simmer for about an hour - the longer you leave it the more infused the flavour will be.

Don't forget to taste, you may want to add some more oregano and if you must put some salt in!

Prepare your favourite pasta to the instructions on the packet - we don't add salt to the boiling water but each to their own!

Once cooked add the pasta to a bowl, spoon over the sauce and serve with grated parmesan cheese.

A word about Salt

Salt is one of those items that you either use a lot of or like us, you don't use at all.

None of the recipes on this blog will contain added salt. If you want to add some either when cooking or when serving feel free, we just don't.

Welcome

Welcome to home made food, a blog with recipes we have used over the years for wholesome healthy food you can cook at home.

We will be posting the food that we like to cook, it's simple and easy to do so why not give it a try!