The promised recipe

This is a heavily adapted version of the recipe for Spaghetti Bolognese in my favourite cookbook of all time, The Joy of Cooking.

Joy of Cooking Spaghetti Bolognese

2 rashers of bacon
1 carrot
1 onion
butter
500g mince
2 tbsp tomato purée
2/3 cup stock or white wine
strip of lemon peel
2 bay leaves
grated nutmeg
100ml double cream

Mince or chop finely the first three ingredients and fry them gently in butter until soft. Add and brown the mince, then add the rest of the ingredients, except for the cream, and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for an hour uncovered, stirring occasionally. Just before serving, fish out the lemon peel and bay leaves, and stir in the cream.

The amounts are very approximate and the method is fairly robust. If you don’t have an hour to simmer it, a half an hour will do. If you can make it the day before, the flavour will improve noticeably with 24 hours in the fridge. It’s worth getting good mince (ie fairly low fat). If not, you should pour the exuded fat off the browned mince before adding the tomato purée, stock etc.