Half and half Bolognaise
Ingredients
Serves 4-6
- 500g mixed beef and pork mince
- 1 tbs rapeseed oil
- 1 onion, peeled and diced
- 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 150g mushrooms, sliced then finely chopped
- 2 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 tbs tomato purée
- 2 teaspoons marmite
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 400ml water (measured in the tomato tin)
- Black pepper
- Maldon salt
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh or dry base herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano)
Timings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Half and half Bolognaise sauce
Pasta and Bolognaise sauce… such a simple dinner but such a goodie. I use half beef and half pork mince in an effort to cut down on the amount of beef we eat (and not wishing to forego our weekly mince). Butchers will be happy to make it up for you and some supermarkets stock it.
Method
Preheat the oven to 150/300/gas 2.
Heat the oil in a casserole dish and brown the meat for 4 minutes, bearing in mind that pork won’t go properly brown like beef does.
Add the onions, celery and carrot and cook for a further 4 minutes until the onions start going translucent.
Turn down the heat and add the mushrooms giving them a good stir. They may look like a lot but they will break down whilst cooking and add a rich depth to the sauce. Cook for 3 minutes until they start to loose their colour. Add the garlic, stir again, and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the tomato purée, marmite, soy, Worcestershire sauce with a good grinding of pepper and a good pinch of salt. Stir. Add the chopped tomatoes followed by water and bring to the boil. Finally sprinkle over the herbs, cover and pop in the oven for 1 hour. Once it’s out, take the lid of straight away and with a wooden spatula, scrape all the brown residue off the side and lid of the dish. This holds bags of flavour and should not be wasted!
Serve with pasta (I use gluten-free) and grated cheese. Any leftovers can be frozen or used later on in the week as a Shepherds Pie or Stuffed Aubergines. The cooked mince will keep for 5 days in the fridge as long as it’s piping when you re-heat it.
DOWNLOAD OR PRINT RECIPE HERE.
There’s lots of tweaks that you can make to your cooking to help reduce your beef in-take. I enjoy cooking with beef, and advocate eating it, however it’s helpful to remind ourselves whether we need it every week. Think of other ways you could slowly reduce the amount of beef you may eat – how about a turkey mince chilli, or pork meatballs?”
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