There’s Spaghetti Bolognese and then there’s Spaghetti Bolognese… (or Spaghetti Shabbatgnese!)
Friday night dinner doesn’t always have to be roast chicken and I guarantee that your nearest and dearest will go crazy for this mind-blowing variant of the recipe by our resident chef, Mark Frankel.
Spaghetti Bolognese is a dish that normally takes a huge amount of love and time, and whilst this one is full to bursting with amour, it takes well under an hour to prepare and make the entire dish (more time for wedding planning then — yay!).
This is the second in our monthly series of Frankel-y brilliant Friday night recipes. If you missed Mark’s first one, it’s right here.
Spaghetti Bolognese
By Mark Frankel
Three. Let’s give you three guesses.
Interested?
Before we start, I must say that it is great to see your culinary appetite whet after surviving my first recipe. There was a noticeable increase in poultry sales here in North West London, which I’m assuming had something to do with me giving away my deepest, tastiest secrets last month…
So, please do take your first guess to which question I am faced with the most. How do I keep my devilishly charming young looks, I hear you say. Ah yes, besides that one. All joking aside, the question of all questions is actually: “What is your most favourite dish?”
Less is more sometimes, and the sweet simple things in life are the real extraordinary pleasures. Therefore, my answer comes easily to this question: Spaghetti alla Bolognese. A hearty, wholesome bowl of steaming pasta covered in generous lashings of deliciously meaty sauce. It’s a fantastic family pleaser and magnificently ticks all the boxes in the comfort food criteria. For the geeks among us, the first documented recipe for this meat based sauce dates all the way back to 1891. Impressively tasty, right?
There are so many variations of this dish worldwide, that it truly boggles the mind. Can you really improve a recipe, which boasts a 125 old food lifespan having rubbed forks and spoons with various meats along the plates from veal to pork, and now the 21st century’s newest fad ‘Quorn’. My amazing grandma, G-d bless her soul, used to prepare her version with carrots and red peppers for a subtly sweet flavour. Others recommend using tomato pureà©, a pinch of nutmeg, a dash of wine & even milk for the non-kosher recipes or even turmeric as part of their take on the world’s best ‘spag bol’. Did you know that in Italy this dish is never served with spaghetti due to its smooth surface, which cannot easily absorb the meaty sauce. The true Italian way is to serve it with tagliatelle, pappardelle or fettuccine, which have a wider more coarse surface to taste every last ingredient in your secret bolognese sauce.
