not-so-authentic-but-darn-good spaghetti bolognese

As the name suggests, this recipe is by no means authentic, but darn it, it's nothing short of great. I, like many other working persons, don't have the time to make my own pasta sauce (that's what I tell people, in fact I'm just lazy). I'm also not confident that if I do make my own that it'll be as good if I used store-bought pasta sauce. This way I know my spaghetti bolognese will always be delicious. My favourite pasta sauce is Paul Newman's bolognese sauce.

This recipe is good when I need to increase my vegetable intake but don't really feel like eating salad or stir-fried vegetables. You can say it's the cop-out way of eating vegetables. I finely grated carrots and chucked them into the sauce, I can't even tell when I eat it. When I made this last week, I totally forgot about the parmesan cheese, so I went to the nearby Italian deli and had parmesan freshly grated in front of my own eyes, and honestly it did make a difference to the dish. It's not that puke-smelling synthetic parmesan cheese off the shelf.


Not-so-authentic-but-darn-good spaghetti bolognese
by closet domestic bunny

Ingredients:

• 500g of minced beef (or minced veal)
• 200g of button mushrooms (sliced)
• 3 rashers of middle bacon (sliced 1mm thick, 4cm long)
• 2 pieces of medium-sized carrots (finely grated)
• one brown onion (chopped finely)
• two 750g jars of Paul Newman's bolognese sauce
• parmesan cheese (freshly grated)
• red wine
• a pack of spaghetti no. 4

Method:

1. Melt butter on a large pan on low heat and add some olive oil. Sauté the chopped onion until translucent, then add the carrots and mushrooms. Set the vegetables aside on a plate.
2. Melt some butter and add some olive oil again onto the same pan. On high heat, sauté the minced beef. Once the beef is cooked, add the sliced bacons. Season with some freshly grated black pepper.
3. Return all the vegetables into the pan and stir to combine. Add a glass of red wine onto the pan. Sauté for a further 5 minutes to reduce the alcohol. Reduce heat if it looks like the ingredients are starting to burn.
4. Stir in the two jars of the bolognese sauce to the pan. Also, stir in about three tablespoon of parmesan cheese.
5. While waiting for the bolognese sauce to heat up, boil some water and cook the pasta. I love the good old spaghetti, specifically no. 4 spaghetti.
6. Once the spaghetti is al dente, place the spaghetti in a bowl. Scoop enough of the bolognese sauce into the bowl and use two forks to combine the sauce with the pasta. Serve the pasta on a plate topped with parmesan cheese and freshly grated black pepper.

This recipe serves 8.