Why make bolognaise from scratch when you can get it pretty cheap and easy from a bottle? That’s what I thought anyway until I didn’t have any in the cupboard and decided to make it myself. I have never gone back to the store bought bottled pasta sauce.

This makes a very rich, tasty bolognaise. And it’s not that much harder or more time consuming than the bottled variety. It is a foundation recipe, though. You can add anything you like: olives, sun dried tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, corn, kidney beans, extra garlic, fresh herbs, spices… endless possibilities. Or you could remove ingredients that you don’t like or don’t have on hand like the capsicum or mushrooms. A tasty variation is adding a couple of crushed cloves to the sauce. It adds a subtle but lovely aroma to your bolognaise.

Of course, instead of serving this over spaghetti, you could make a simple white sauce, layer with a few sheets of pasta, grate some cheese over the top and have lasagne instead.

Method

1. Brown mince over medium heat, breaking up lumps with a spoon. Remove and drain in a colander.
2. Sauté onion until soft, add in the capsicum and garlic and cook for a couple more minutes then the mushrooms and cook for a minute more.
3. Add in the tomato paste and herbs and cook for half a minute or so to caramelise the paste a little, then add in the mince, stirring.
4. Add the tomatoes, wine if using (use the wine to rinse out the tomato tin), sugar, salt and pepper.
5. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 – 20 minutes while the pasta cooks so that the sauce reduces, thickens and the flavours intensify.
6. Serve over pasta with a generous scattering of freshly grated parmesan.

Have you read these articles?:

1. beef stroganoff
2. mince bake
3. Sausage Stew

This dish was inspired by a recipe that used tuna instead of chicken, so a tin of tuna makes a good substitute. Alternatively, this dish could be made to use up leftover roast chicken or BBQ chicken, reducing the preparation and cooking time as well as the cost. This makes 2 very large bowls of pasta, add a little extra of the cream, tomato paste, chicken and peas to serve 4.

Method

• Soak peas for a few minutes in boiling water to defrost
• Brown chicken in batches in some olive oil
• Sauté onion and garlic until soft and golden
• Return chicken to the pan and stir in the tomato paste
• Add the cream and the peas and simmer over low heat until the peas are cooked through
• Add capers, heat for a minute or two, stir in the parsley and serve over pasta

Have you read these articles?:

1. beef stroganoff
2. Easy Pasta Carbonara
3. Easy Fried Rice

Tasty, restaurant quality pasta carbonara is really quick, easy and inexpensive to make at home. Admittedly it’s not going to be the healthiest meal of the week, but it will taste awesome and is a great quick meal for busy nights. All in all, it takes about 20 minutes to get this meal on the table.

Purists will argue that this is not a ‘real’ carbonara recipe as it has cream in it, but I’m not a purist, I like to cook what I like to eat. I’ve tried to give amounts for the ingredients, but taste as you go and add as much flavouring as you like, which is how I cook.

The key to it’s great taste is fresh parmesan, not packet or freeze dried stuff in a jar. You pay a bit more, but because of it’s strong flavour a little goes a long way, and it lasts months in the fridge, so it ends up being good value. You could use low fat cream, but… the real stuff will taste heaps better and real, whole foods are nice and healthy as part of a balanced diet.

The recipe is for two, so double it or adjust to feed as many as required.

Method

1. Cook pasta according to packet directions
2. Meanwhile, cook bacon over medium high heat for a minute or two until lightly browned. If there is not a lot of fat in the bacon, you may want to add a little oil to the pan to cook.
3. Add the mushrooms and continue to cook for another couple of minutes to cook through, then toss in the garlic and cook for another minute.
4. Add the cream and bring to the boil. Simmer for a minute or two to thicken.
5. Add the parmesan and stir in until melted. Taste and add extra if you like.
6. Take the sauce off the heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Stir the egg in well. The idea here is not to let the egg scramble. You don’t want bits of egg floating around in your sauce, hence letting it cool a little first. The egg thickens and enriches the sauce. The residual heat from the sauce and the pasta will be enough to cook the egg without scrambling it.
7. Stir in the parsley and some freshly ground pepper. The sauce should be salty enough from the bacon and parmesan without having to add any extra.
8. Stir in the cooked pasta. If the pasta isn’t hot enough, put it back on a low heat and reheat slowly stirring, so that you don’t scramble the egg.
9. Serve alone or with a salad and crusty bread and a generous grinding of fresh black pepper.

Have you read these articles?:

1. chicken and pea pasta sauce
2. Easy Fried Rice
3. spaghetti bolognaise