Cooking Fresh Food - breaking the jar/can/bottle habit...

[TheBear]

A couple of comments on LL80's great looking bolognese recipe:-
- Don't go nuts looking for Passata (for some reason supermarkets think it is a premium product), you can use canned, chopped tomato along with tomato puree to get the same result.
- If you really want a smooth sauce then push the chopped tomatos through a blender then a sieve to remove all the pips and lumps first...I can't be bothered I like it chunky.

A few variations:-
- For a deeper range of flavours, start the sauce with chopped onions, celery, carrot and garlic - let these cook down in the oil stirring occasionally to ensure that they are well coated. Make sure everything is finely chopped - the veggies should almost dissolve into the sauce as it cooks. Throw in a couple of bay leaves whilst it is simmering.
- Add some chopped chilli with the passata for a spicier finish.
- Give it a Greek feel by adding a stick of cinnamon, some powder cloves and fresh or dried oregano.
- Add chopped chilli, saffron and chopped chorizo for a more spanish taste
- Add a couple of squares of dark, unsweetened chocolate for a richer, darker sauce


Tali - this is a nice simple recipe for a good bolognese sauce that you should try, if you don't want to tend a pot on the stove for a few hours then use a slow cooker or move the covered pan into a low oven for a few hours. The sauce will store well in the fridge or freezer very well.

Briggsy's Girl - Passata is one of the traditional Italian ways of preserving the tomato crop for use over the winter, so if you are getting a bumper crop from your veggie patch then it's worth thinking about. Simply put the fresh tomatoes through a blender and sieve, or use a food mill (these aren't expensive and are very useful) then boil the result down to your preferred consistency and store in sterilised jars - it will keep for months and months without refridgeration and forms the basis of lots of good italian dishes.