...I say this is the best but I've said that before. This post was one of the oldest on my website and this is the fourth version of it, so you can presume that the previous three were not the best. Broadly the first version used tomatoes for the sauce; the second added beef stock; the third has the pasta finished in the sauce, and this one…
[drumroll please]
…is ripped from a recent Guardian article where Tom Kerridge made a venison chilli.
The key as he puts it is to “roast the hell out of the meat”. Don’t just brown it but get it dark and dry (but not burnt). This seems odd, but I tried it and it doesn’t end up dry at all. It adds its lovely chargrilled flavour and then soaks up the sauce as it cooks.
There must be a million recipes for this and everyone talks about “authentic” Spaghetti Bolognaise like anyone really cares. Antonio Carluccio, who knows pretty much everything about Italian food, said on a TV show that the authentic recipe is just meat (Beef and Pork) and tomatoes; no garlic, no herbs, no onions. I have no idea. Turns out he doesn’t either as his website includes one with butter, pancetta, onions, garlic…
He also says tagliatelle is more authentic which rings true. Spag Bol is an Anglicised version, and we often do something fundamentally wrong when we make it: Cook the sauce, cook the pasta, put the pasta on a plate, and then add a dollop of sauce.
So take the ingredients list with a pinch of salt, but this is a nice combination in my view. I don’t bother with the bacon a lot of people use but I do use a mix of pork and beef mince.
Method
Get a nice big saucepan and put all of the meat in with a small amount of oil to get it going. You need to cook the meat to get the fat out of it. When the meat is dark brown get rid of the fat and set the cooked meat aside.
Note: I now do this in the oven. It takes a bit of time and you need to stire it now nd again, but it works really well.
Wipe the pan out with kitchen roll, put in a decent glug of olive oil and sweat the onions and carrots with some salt with the lid on until the onions are soft and sweet (about 15 minutes). Add the garlic and anchovies, cook for a few minutes then turn the heat right up and add the wine.
Cook it for about 5 minutes then add the herbs, stock, tomatoes and the cooked meat.
Give it a good stir, turn the heat low and put the lid back on.
Stir it every half hour or so and leave it gently simmering for as long as you can - 2 hours is good. If it dries out you need to turn down the hob, keep it covered and, if it’s really dry, add some veg or beef stock or another can of tomatoes.
