It’s a truly gutsy Bolognese sauce that’s packed with flavour

Spag bol is up there as one of the nation’s favourite home meals, and everyone has their variations and little tricks. Here are mine.

Yum: Alice Zaslavsky‘s Bolognese. Picture: Guy Bailey

Spag bol is up there as one of the nation’s most commonly made dishes, and everyone has their variations and little tricks. Some of my favourites are here: faking freshly made pappardelle with lasagne sheets cut into thick ribbons; chef Giovanni Pilu’s “giant burger patty” technique to activate the Maillard reaction in the meat; boosting the umami factor with ingredients like porcini and parmesan rind; and adding a pinch of sugar and a glug of milk. The result is a truly gutsy sauce that’s packed with flavour. This recipe makes twice the amount of sauce you’ll need to feed four; freeze the rest for next time.

Crafty: cutting fresh lasagne sheets into thick ribbons. Picture: Guy Bailey

Brilliant Bolognese

¼ cup (60ml) olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

50g butter

250g beef mince

400g pork mince

10g dried porcini mushrooms (see tips)

300g button mushrooms

2 rashers streaky bacon, roughly chopped

1 bunch basil, tender stems and leaves chopped, small handful of leaves reserved

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 stick celery, roughly chopped

6 cloves garlic, peeled

½ cup white wine

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

½ cup tomato paste

700ml good quality passata

1 teaspoon sugar

500ml water

1 cup milk

¼ nutmeg, finely grated

2 bay leaves

1 cinnamon quill

100g parmesan & rind (see tips)

400g fresh lasagne sheets (see tips)

In a heavy based casserole pot, heat oil and butter on medium-high heat until melted. Add the beef and pork mince and flatten with your palm to form a giant patty covering the bottom of the pan. Leave to cook undisturbed for about 10 minutes until the base is nicely browned.

Meanwhile, soak porcini in 100ml of just-boiled water for 15 minutes to soften, reserving the liquid. In a food processor, blitz the soaked porcini, mushrooms, bacon and chopped basil stems to a paste. Break up the mince in the pot with a wooden spoon and add the mushroom mix, continuing to sauté, stirring, until everything starts to colour.

Throw the onion, carrot, celery and garlic into the food processor (no need to clean it) and blitz to a paste, then add to the pot. Sauté for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once there is no liquid left, add the white wine and crank up the heat; stir, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom. Add the porcini liquid, fennel seeds and tomato paste and cook for 2-3 minutes to introduce the ingredients to each other amicably.

Add the passata, sugar, water, milk, nutmeg, bay leaves and cinnamon quill. Fill the passata jar with water, shake and add the tomatoey liquid to the pot. Add the parmesan rind, if using, and stir. Simmer for 1.5-2 hours until the colour deepens and you have a rich sauce. Season to taste.

When ready to serve, bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil. Heat the sauce in a large pan and remove the cinnamon quill, bay leaves and parmesan rind. Slice the fresh lasagne sheets into 1.5cm strips cross-ways (short side) and add to the boiling water, stirring so the pasta doesn’t stick; cook for 1-2 minutes until pasta floats to the top. Drain and add to the sauce, adding a splash of cooking water and the chopped basil; stir to combine. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, pepper, freshly grated parmesan and basil leaves. Serves 4

Top tips

Porcini can be bought as dried slices or powder. If using powder, stir a tablespoon into 100ml of just-boiled water to steep.

Freeze parmesan rinds to add to sauces like this or stock bases. Or your local friendly deli might have some to spare.

Fresh pasta sheets can be found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket or deli. You’ll need about 100g per person.

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