Making more of your meal: Spaghetti Bolognese

What’s in your food and how can you eat better? In this series, we look at some staple meals, considering what’s good for you and what’s maybe not – and how you can turn them into dishes that are healthier, better for the planet and alive with flavour.

Spaghetti Bolognese – or ‘Spag Bol’ – is a go-to evening meal for many of us. Rich and meaty, but relatively easy to make, it has a lot to offer in terms of nutrition – that’s if you give it some love and care and don’t cut corners on ingredients.

Treat your meat well!

In an era of supermarkets and global supply chains, it’s easy to skip over thoughts of where the meat we’re eating really comes from. But think about the life of the animal you’re eating (I know that’s hard when you are planning meals during a busy week, but it’s also important). Try to avoid the supermarket and find a good butcher or producer who can tell you about the provenance of your meat and the conditions that it was raised – and killed – in. Sourcing beef from cattle that have grazed outdoors on a diverse mix of plants, means you’ll be serving up a high-nutrition flavour-packed Bolognese. This video – produced for the SFT’s recent Grazing Livestock report – is a beautiful reminder of how farming practices are linked to our own health through the quality of the food that ends up on our plates.

This version of Bolognese (recipe below) calls for pork as well as beef. Pigs often suffer in industrial pig units, where they have a pretty miserable life before going to slaughter – but there are still farmers out there who work hard to produce pork from high-welfare practices where pigs are free to roam outdoors and express natural behaviours, and aren’t transported excessive distances when they finally go to slaughter – although this is becoming a challenge for even the most well-intentioned farmers as more local abattoirs close down.

Granted good meat is typically more expensive (although the SFT is working to change this through its work on true cost accounting). Just like chicken, beef and pork should be something of a treat, and part of a diet that incorporates plenty of veggie-based meals.

Ingredients

Love your ingredients and forget the jarred sauce. Aim to buy organic produce if you can because you’ll be pretty horrified by the chemicals sprayed on most conventional produce. Find a good farmer or farmers’ market to shop at – surprisingly, they can be easier to find in towns and cities than in the countryside, but they are out there.

Think about what you can do in your own environs. While you can buy fresh herbs in the supermarket, you can also start a simple herb bed in your garden or even just your kitchen window, so that you always have some fresh herbs – it will make a difference in your cooking.

In your bought-in ingredients, especially something like beef stock, are there additives that shouldn’t be there? Did your can of tomatoes come from the Italian mafia (seriously)?

And don’t forget the niceties – good red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, breadcrumbs, those herbs and, if you’re brave, home-made fresh pasta.

Meaty Spag Bol recipe (to feed 4 people):

• 300g minced beef
• 150g minced pork
• 1 onion
• 1 large carrot (or 2 small carrots)
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 – 2 cloves of garlic depending on how garlicky you like it
• 1 bay leaf
• A good glug of red wine
• 100 ml beef stock
• 1 can of tomatoes and a good squeeze of tomato paste
• spaghetti – fresh pasta is a joy if you have the time to make it, but as we all know dried pasta is quick and easy
• salt and pepper

1. Braise the meat in a pan at a fairly high heat and break up the meat until it has browned and there is no excess water.
2. Add the carrots, onion and celery (optional) until softened, adding garlic at the end. Then add the wine along with the bay leaf and cook until the wine reduces and then add the stock. Add the tin of tomatoes along with the tomato paste and cook everything gently for about 1 – 2 hours. Don’t forget to season and taste!

Mushroom and Lentil Spag Bol recipe (to feed 4 people):

Spag Bol doesn’t  have to be a meat dish – this recipe from Riverford puts pulses centre stage.

The mushrooms and lentils in this vegetarian version of a Bolognese sauce have a rich savoury flavour that are enhanced with some vegetarian Worcester sauce and red wine. Just like the meat version, sourcing your ingredients from farms that prioritise healthy soil and minimise chemicals is best for health – and often for flavour too. If in doubt, choose organic if you can afford it – even if it’s just for the plants that tend to be more heavily sprayed (tomatoes and salad leaves are amongst the worst offenders).

• 2 onions
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery sticks
• oil for frying, e.g. vegetable or sunflower
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 400g mushrooms
• 100g dried dark green lentils
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 150ml red wine
• 2 tbsp vegetarian Worcester sauce
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 2 tsp mixed herbs
• 2 bay leaves
• 400g spelt spaghetti
• 50g Italian-style cheese, grated
• salt and pepper

1. Peel the onions and carrots. Wash the celery stalks, then finely dice all three veg. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large deep-frying pan. Add the onions, carrots and celery and fry on a low heat for 15 minutes, stirring now and then to stop them catching. Add a splash of water if it looks like they might catch.
2. Meanwhile, peel and finely chop, grate, or crush 3-4 garlic cloves. Wipe the mushrooms clean, then slice. Rinse the lentils in a sieve under cold running water, then drain them. After 15 minutes, add the garlic, mushrooms, mixed herbs and bay leaves to the onion mixture. Increase the heat slightly and stir for 2 minutes. Add the tomato purée. Stir for 1 minute.
3. Add the wine and Worcester sauce. Simmer for 2 minutes. Add the lentils and tinned tomatoes. Refill 1 tin with water and pour that in too. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 20-25 minutes or so, stirring now and then and topping up with a little water if needed; the lentils will absorb some of the liquid as they cook. You want to end up with tender lentils and a fairly wet sauce to coat the pasta.
4. Once the sauce starts to simmer, put a large pan of salted water on to boil. Wash some lettuce leaves, as many as you’d like, and shake dry. When the pan of water starts to boil, add the spaghetti to the pan. Boil for about 9 minutes, until tender. Keep the mushroom sauce simmering. Once the spaghetti is cooked (tender but still with a little bite), drain and toss in a drizzle of good olive oil to stop it sticking together. Keep to one side until the lentil and mushroom sauce is ready.
5. Once the lentils are tender, toss the pasta with the sauce. Gently heat for a few moments to warm the pasta. Serve sprinkled with the grated cheese, with the lettuce leaves on the side, tossed in a little salad dressing if you like.

 

Thanks to Riverford for allowing us to republish their Mushroom and Lentil Bolognese recipe.