Delicious Summery Spag Bol

I have to tell you, nothing beats the pleasure of cooking with your own home grown vegies and the superior feeling one gets from using ethically raised meat.  Last night I decided on scratched together spaghetti bolognaise; this meant I could only use what’s in the house to make it.  I had about fifty thousand capsicum in the crisper from when the Wee Girl’s girlfriends were all over last Friday making pizza and having a party to send her off in style for her big Italian* exchange student adventure.  However, I digress.

I had a lot of capsicums which needed using and I found a packet of delicious F&B pork mince in the trusty chest freezer.  I’ve made spag bol with pork mince before – it is delicious! Or a combination of pork and beef is also divine – you need to try it, and as I’ve helpfully attached my recipe, you’ve no excuse not to…

Usually when I make spag bol I soften onion, garlic and anchovies before browning off the mince.  This time, due to the fact I had some home grown carrots available (is there no end to what I can pull out of the ground ‽‽‽) I thought I’d do a traditional Italian battuto to start off my dish.  Essentially this is very (very) finely diced onion, celery and carrot.  I also included garlic, basil stalks, bay leaves and anchovies.  I fried this down gently in olive oil until it was very soft (which I believe, turns it into a soffritto).  Apparently this is the legit way to start a myriad of Italian dishes. Once it was really soft I turned up the heat, pushed it all to one side and browned off the pork mince.

When the pork was cooked out I added what was left of a bottle of red wine which was languishing on the bench.  DO NOT BELIEVE THE HYPE PEOPLE! This rubbish about ‘only use the wine for cooking which you’d drink’ is a load of codswallop! Once a quarter of a bottle of wine in a large dish of other stuff is bubbled down to next to nothing, it’s just another flavour note – I really don’t think our palettes are refined enough to tell I opened the bottle a week ago.  Well, that’s what I think anyway.

Once the wine was next to gone, I added a beef stock cube, diced red, green and yellow capsicum, a whole lot of tomatoes from the garden that I whizzed up in the Magimix and some balsamic vinegar.  A big pinch of salt, pepper and a squirt of pizza base sauce (I’d run out of tomato paste).  Also all the basil leaves from the stalks I used earlier.  I then simmered all of this down for about 45 minutes.  

 

During the last bit of simmering I cooked some spaghetti and then the Wee Girl and I enjoyed it out in the back garden - me with a glass of freshly opened wine.  This particular recipe made a gloriously light, summery bol. It was perfect for a summer evening in the garden.

That newly opened bottle, and one other, may have been finished off with the BFF when she came around after dinner.  Alas, none of that left for the next time I make bol…

Himself had gone out for a play date with one of his little friends, so only returned in time to enjoy the remaining dregs from the second bottle.  I assured him that all the bol had been eaten and enjoyed by the Wee Girl and myself, so alas, there was none for him to try… He was not convinced and I may have lied, there was a Tupperbox full for him in the fridge for lunch today.  I’m sure he’ll be judging; he’s usually the bol cooker in the house. But I’m convinced my home grown vegies and that F&B pork will make a superior summer bol…

*She leaves in just over a week!! Argh!!