Spaghetti Bolognese

This sauce is ideal for spaghetti, but can be used with any kind of pasta - great for Lasagne as well. This is not a true bolognese, but quite a variation - but very tasty nevetheless! I tend to prepare huge amounts and freeze the stuff in individual portions. I've carefully measured the ingredients and played around with different amounts and found the amounts below to be the best - but please feel free to modify! This will give you a not too salty bolognese with a very slight sharpness to it - my kids eat it as well. If you like your food hot, double the amount of Sambal Oelek. Also, if you like more garlic in your spag bol, feed free to modify the amount.

Ingredients for the sauce (serves six)

500g beef mince
650g onions
4 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
200g tomato concentrate
8 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt (as people started moaning about the amount of salt used - do me a favour, add up the weight of all ingredients to the sauce and then calculate the salt content per 150g serving ... )
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons oregano
two cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon paprika
one glass (125ml) red wine
one splash of worcester sauce
1 teaspoon sambal oelek (hot chilli)

Ingredients for the spaghetti (serves six)

1 kg spaghetti (decent stuff such as Barilla, De Cecco, etc.)
7 liters water
two tablespoons olive oil
one teaspoon salt
two tablespoons butter
freshly chopped basil
freshly grated Reggiano parmesan cheese

Preparation

Chop the onions - not too finely. Press the garlic. Pour olive oil into a large saucepan, add the onions and fry them in the olive oil until they change colour. Now crumble the mince into the onions and fry it until it is completely done (no red bits left). Continue frying the mince and the onions while styrring to let some of the water that has accumulated evaporate. When the mince is nice and crumbly, pour in the red wine.

Now add the tomatoes, the tomato concentrate, the honey and the spices. Let the whole lot simmer for an hour with no lid on the saucepan - we want the sauce to reduce to get rid of some of the water - that will make it tastier.

Preparing pasta

Allow roughly 200g of pasta per head (for the very hungry) - a normal portion is around 150g. Boil a lot of water (1 liter per 100g), add some olive oil and salt. When the water is boiling, add the pasta. I normally use a timer to keep track of the cooking time (check the pasta package) - tends to be 10 - 12 minutes for spaghetti. Check at the lower end of the cooking time to see if they are "al dente". Now put out the whole lot into a colander which you have placed in your sink. Turn on the cold water and rinse the spaghetti under the water (while they are still in the colander). Put the saucepan back onto your hob and add 2 tablespoons of butter. Melt the butter. Put the pasta back into the saucepan and heat it up while turning it until it's hot. The pasta will taste great, not stick together and be just right!

The Sauce
	Our ingredients (the tomato tins are still on top of the cupboard)
	Take the top and bottom off the onions. Give me a break about the onion photos - this is done holding a camera in one hand ...
	Peel them
	Cut them into chunky slices
	Half the slices ...
	... and now cut them into strips.
	If your garlic has any green bits inside, take them out - prevents bad breath and indigestion! (Thanks to Beth Miller for the hint)
	Pour the olive oil into a sizeable saucepan.
	Now add the chopped onions.
	These are our dried spices to be added later.
	When the onions have changed colour, add the mince.
	A nice splash of Worcester Sauce won't hurt.
	Fry the mince and the onions until the mince is nice and "crumbly" - we want to get rid of most of the excess moisture.
	Now add the glass of red wine.
	These are all the dried spices (salt, pepper, paprika, oregano).
	Add the four tins of chopped tomatoes.
	Press the two cloves of garlic into the sauce.
	Add the Sambal Oelek ...
	... the honey ...
	... and the tomato concentrate.
	Let simmer on low heat for a minimum of 45 minutes - stirring occasionally so it won't burn. This is to reduce the sauce so it will be nice and thick and tasty! I normally simmer the sauce for 2 hours. It does make a difference.
	Ah! You won't want to stop tasting ...
The Pasta
	Bring water (1 liter per 100g of pasta) to a boil, add salt and olive oil. Put the spaghetti into the boiling water. You can bend them around the saucepan once they have been in the boiling water for a couple of seconds. These photos show a single portion of spaghetti - even though the recipe specifies 1 kg for six - so don't be too confused. I just didn't feel like inviting 5 people over just to make the photos more realistic ...
	Nothing wrong in using a timer - taste the spaghetti after the recommended boiling time is over - they should be "al dente".
	When the spaghetti are to your liking, pour them into a colander and rinse them under COLD water - yes, you want the pasta to actually cool down!
	Then melt some butter in the saucepan ...
	... and add the well drained pasta.
	Now stir while re-heating the pasta in the melted butter.
	Presto - your spaghetti bolognese! This is my favourite dish of all times. Here served with grated Reggiano and some chopped basil.

Best with ...

If you can, get hold of a bit of real parmesan cheese (my brother Gerhard recommends Reggiano) and grate it yourself - it tastes a lot better. And of course a glass of red wine!