Simple Bolognaise Sauce

Sous Chef J is keen on foods that "don't take much eating"... by which he means he doesn't have to wield a knife and fork to cut up.  So dishes using mince, slow cooking and pasta are always requested.  This is our take on a pasta sauce - served with spaghetti or other pasta and oodles of cheese. 

Ingredients we used were -

400g mince beef
400g tin chopped tomatoes
2-3 white onions, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped finely
200ml rich beef stock (we used a Knorr stock pot)
1 Tablespoon tomato puree
oil (we used the remainder of the oil from a jar of preserved red peppers - thrifty as ever!)
freshly ground black pepper
grated cheese, to serve (we used mature cheddar today but parmesan or other works well too)

Having chopped the onions, they were cooked in some oil in our wok on a medium heat until they started to turn translucent.  Then the beef was added and cooked for a few minutes until it began to brown.  Next the tomato puree was added, stirred through and the wok lid was placed on and left to cook for about 10 minutes on a low heat.

At this point the carrots, which we'd chopped whilst cooking the mince mix, chopped tomatoes and stock were added to the wok.  The heat was turned up slightly and the sauce was left to cook down for about 25-30 minutes.... the lid left slightly ajar to allow some reduction (boiling off) of the sauce to happen. 

The sauce is served with pasta (today we used Salute spaghetti) and a salad.... and gone in a flash.  The spaghetti was cooked, drained and returned to a buttery pan, then the sauce was mixed through before serving.











We reserved half of the prepared amount, allowed it to cool, bagged and labelled it and froze to use later when time/inclination is lacking and a speedy supper is required.

This could be cooked in a slow cooker but it's supposed to be summer so we did it on the hob!