Homemade fresh spaghetti bolognese sauce recipe

Okay, so it's not like the traditional spaghetti bolognese sauce recipe, as was registered by the Bolognese delegation of Accademia Italiana della Cucina in 1982, which is confined to celery, carrots, pancetta, meat broth, tomato paste, white wine, cream or milk. However, my sauce does have a tomato base.. Other than that, it's quite different. For this recipe (in pics) I used homemade pasta, but dried pasta will do the job. This spaghetti sauce recipe is a hearty, warming pasta meal, great to enjoy any day of the week. The list of ingredients seems long, but don't be put off by this. It all adds to the flavour, it's real easy to make and well worth the effort! To make this spaghetti bolognese sauce recipe you will need: a chopping board/block, sharp knife, 2 saucepans, fryingpan, bowl, wooden/plastic spoon, colander/strainer or seive.

Cooking time approx 60 mins.

Ingredients:

• 500g lean minced beef/steak
• 1 x large onion chopped
• 5 x garlic clove chopped
• 1 level tbsp (tablespoon) black pepper corns bruised/crushed
• 1 x fresh bay leaf
• 1 handful fresh oregano or 1tbsp dried
• 1 handful fresh basil or 1 tbsp dried
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• 2tbsp tomato puree/paste
• 1 fresh chili chopped
• 1 x beef stock cube - oxo
• 12g dried porchini mushrooms
• 12g sundried tomatoes chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• red wine 1/2 glass
• 1 tsp (teaspoon) sugar
• 400g pasta - 100g per person
• 1/2 a green pepper and half a red pepper
• parmesan cheese
• salt

In a bowl, cover the porchini mushrooms with warm water and leave to soak, preferably for 20 mins. While the porchini mushrooms are soaking, chop the oregano, basil, onion, garlic and chili with a sharp knife on your chopping block. Bruise or crush the black peppercorns in a pestle and mortar, or with the flat side of the knife.

Cooking - step 1:

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the chopped garlic and onion and saute (fry) until they start to brown.

Step 2:

Add the minced meat to the saucepan with the garlic and onions, with a wooden or plastic spoon combine the mixture together well. Every now and then, give it a stir to break the meat up, so it cooks evenly.

Step 3:

When there is no more pink meat left, crumble the stock cube over it and mix it through. Then add; the chopped tomatoes, bayleaf, chili, oregano, basil, black peppercorns, tomato paste/puree, chopped sundried tomatoes, soaked porchini mushrooms and a tbsp of the porchini liqour. Then with 1/2 to 3/4 of a glass of red wine, pour in to cover the mixture.

Step 4:

At this point turn the heat down to simmer the bolognese for 35 - 45 mins. The sauce will reduce and thicken also becoming rich and delicious, while it's simmering you may want to stir every so often, so as not to burn it. Also taste it! add salt accordingly at this point, if you find it too rich try adding a little sugar to mellow it.

Step5:

While the sauce is simmering, chop the peppers into bitesize chunks and fry them gently in a frying pan untill they are brown. Add them to the sauce 10 minutes prior to serving.

Step 6:

When the sauce has been simmering for 25 minutes, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Now salt the water (1tsp) and add the pasta. If it's dried pasta, boil for 10 - 12 minutes until al 'dente (firm but not hard) or to your own preference. If it's fresh pasta, boil for 2 - 3 minutes, again remove from heat when it's at your desired preference. You can add the peppers to the sauce now too.

Step 7:

Take the sauce and pasta off of the heat. Now pour the pasta into your colander or seive to get rid of the water, then put the pasta in shallow bowls or on plates. Next spoon the bolognese sauce over the pasta. Finally, shave or grate some parmesan cheese over the top and garnish with some freshly torn basil leaves. Serve straight up with a glass of your favourite wine or beer, and enjoy!

Bonus Tip:

If you're a chili head like me, you might want to try slicing a chili into rings, and frying it gently in some olive oil untill brown. Then sprinkle over the top of your lovely spaghetti bolognese to give it more of a kick!.. =)