I felt proper poorly and sorry for myself yesterday. It was a trauma just getting out of bed, never mind anything else.
The thought of cooking a full tea for when the kids came home ravenous from school left me in the depths of despair..
I’d taken some mince out of the freezer the night before with the intention of doing savoury mince with sesame scones, mash and veg..
I decided to do a spaghetti bolognese instead. The kids love a spag bol and as it’s one of the easiest things to cook from scratch, it was a no brainer.
This recipe should serve 4-5 good helpings
Ingredients
1 lb mince
2-3 chopped onions (we like lots of onion).
Green/Yellow/Red bell peppers roughly chopped (You could use frozen chopped peppers for ease)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Large bottle of passata
Salt n Pepper to taste
Garlic to taste (we like lots of garlic)
Dried mixed herbs to taste
Chopped mushrooms. (I don’t put mushrooms in mine though, the kids would be devastated if I did)..
Spaghetti..
Method
I always use 5% fat mince which I dry fry in my wok to start. If you’re using ordinary mince, dry fry it then throw the fat residue away before you go any further. It keeps the calories down whilst retaining the flavour.
Once you’ve dry fried your mince, add the onions and cook on a mid heat until they are translucent. Don’t let them go brown. Keep stirring.
I add my seasonings at this point, throw it all in whilst you keep stirring to make sure it doesn’t stick
Add your peppers and mushrooms and keep stirring until you can see they are starting to cook. If you think the mixture is in danger of sticking to the bottom of the pan, then turn the heat down.
Finally add chopped tomatoes and passata, then bring to the boil so it’s cooking nicely. Once it gets to the correct temp, turn it right down so it’s just simmering and leave it for about half an hour or so, stirring occasionally. It should be thick and chunky at this stage.
The secret to a really good bolognese is to let it cook for several hours. (My half Italian friend told me that years ago). So at this point, I turn it into my slow cooker and leave it on low for a few hours. Again just stirring occasionally.
Bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil, then add your spaghetti. Cook until soft. I always throw it in the colander once cooked and rinse with boiling water to get rid of the starch before I serve it.
Tip, snap the spaghetti into smaller pieces before cooking, It saves a lot of mess when the kids are trying to eat it..
I had some tomato and garlic flat bread from Tesco in the freezer, so I warmed that up to go with it. Everything got scoffed, so it obviously went down very well.
And that’s how you make a really easy Spag Bol
It’s so easy to make, you could even get the kids to do it. (under supervision). My granddaughter loves doing stuff like this and it gives them a real sense of pride to make a meal for the family.
