Boozy Bolognese

My favourite home cooked dinner when I was a child had to have been my Mum's Bolognese. Normally we would have it with spaghetti, but now, whilst I am a student, it will often be spooned over a couple of jacket potatoes, or maybe some pasta. Her recipe was amazing...even to this day I cannot get it right. Still not sure what I am missing out. But mine is a pretty good second best...plus, it's more mature now with the extra indulgent ingredient - red wine!! As I have previously said on many blog posts - my sister and I were not afraid of vegetables so my mum would chuck EVERYTHING that we had in it...carrots, mushrooms, celery - the lot! My mum would let it simmer for aaaages, which would always lead me to temptation, so whenever she wasn't looking I would grab a spoon and give it a little taster...just to make sure it was okay, of course!! 

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Ingredients

330g Minced Beef

1/2 White Onion

2 Garlic Cloves

3 Carrots
150g Peas (I use frozen)

1/2 Tin of Sweetcorn

6 Mushrooms

1 Tin of Peeled Tomatoes

2 tsp Sunflower Oil

1 Generous Glass of Red Wine
1 tbsp Tomato Puree

Salt

Pepper

1. Pour the oil in the pan and gently fry the garlic and onion until transparent. 

2. Add the mince and cook until browned. Season with salt and pepper. Add the tomato puree for colour.

3. Add the tomatoes from the tin (but keep the juice separate for now) and red wine. Bring to the boil.

4. Add the chopped carrots, peas and sweetcorn. Place the lid on the pan and allow to simmer for 40mins.

5. Throw in the chopped mushrooms, stir and simmer for a further 10mins. 

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Serve piping hot with grated cheese with either jacket potatoes, spaghetti, pasta or rice. (You may also find it necessary to finish off the bottle of red, with your meal!!) You will find that the bolognese is full of depth and flavour and is far superior to any of those ready made jars of rubbish, which are simply full of salt and have no texture or punch to them. This is one of my favourite 'cosey up infront of the telly with someone special' dinners. And you really can chuck any form of vegetable in with it. I dare say it is nothing like an Italian Mumma would make, but I've never been fortunate enough to go to Italy to experience the 'proper' version. (Plus, I think mine is simply delish anyway!!)

Bon Appetit!!