Bolognese Bake

Bolognaise 6

Recipe info

  • Prep time: 30 minutes preparation (approx)
  • Cooking time: 2 hours
  • Serves: 4
  • Tip: If you would like to do the bake, make sure you pre heat the oven at 190C/ gas mark 5/fan 170C

 Ingredients

  • Olive oil
  • 2 Medium Onions, peeled and finely diced.
  • 2 Sticks of Celery, trimmed and finely diced.
  • 2 Carrots, peeled, trimmed and finely diced.
  • 1 level tsp of Dried Rosemary (or fresh if you prefer)
  • 2 Cloves of Garlic, peeled and finely diced.
  • ¼ each of Green, Red, Yellow Pepper, finely chopped.
  • ½ Courgette, finely chopped.
  • 6 Mushrooms, finely chopped.
  • 500g Fresh Beef Mince.
  • 2 Tins of Plum Tomatoes (or chopped if you prefer).
  • 1 level tsp of Dried Basil (or fresh if you prefer)
  • 1 level tsp Dried Oregano.
  • 2 Dried Bay Leaves (or fresh if you prefer).
  • 1 level tsp of Chilli Flakes, or 1 fresh Chilli (optional, and to your own taste)
  • 1 Beef Stock Cube.
  • 1 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
  • Sea Salt and Black Pepper
  • 75g Freshly grated Mature Cheddar

Bolognaise 1

  • First you will need a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, and place it on a medium heat. Add a dash of olive oil and add your onions, carrots, celery and rosemary. Stir and fry for 5 minutes.

 

Bolognaise 2

  • Then add the ¾ of pepper, courgette, mushrooms and garlic. Stir and fry for a further 5 minutes.

 

Bolognaise 3

  • Next, add the mince and stir until the meat is browned all over. You may need to increase the heat to do this.

 

Bolognaise 4

  • Stir in your tins of plum tomatoes, basil, oregano, bay leaves, chilli, beef stock cube and tomato ketchup.

 

Bolognaise 5

  • Give everything a good stir, break up the plum tomatoes, season to taste and let it gently simmer. Take the heat down a notch and leave it to bubble away for around an hour, stirring every now and then to make sure it doesn’t catch. Once it looks like the sauce has thickened into a yummy tomato gorgeousness, it should be ready.

 

Bolognaise 6

  • As something different I decided to turn my bolognaise into a bake of sorts and partly boiled up a few portions of pasta (to a not quite done state) and put it in a large baking dish and poured the sauce over the top and gently stirred the contents. As a final flourish I put the Cheddar on top and put it into a warm oven at about 190C/ gas mark 5/fan 170C

 

Bolognaise 7

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