Ragù alla Bolognese aka Spag Bol

Spaghetti Bolognese by which it is most commonly known, is one of the most popular dishes in all the world, whether you eat out or in. There are so many variations and bastardisations of the recipe that when I was a youngster, I would always order it in an Italian restaurant so that I could to compare it to my Dad's and give what I thought would be an accurate evaluation of the place. If they couldn't get spag bol right then they weren't much use. Inevitably they all paled in comparison with mio padre whose recipe was a mixture of his brother's, mio zio Pascal, who lived in northern Italy and the recipe my mother taught him via the Godmother of Mediterranean cuisine Elizabeth David. 

Over the years I have added my own little touches to my father's Spag Bol recipe which is in fact  virtually identical to the Accademia Italiana della Cucina's in association with the La Camera di Commercio di Bologna's recipe for ragù. 

The first thing I changed was the stock, I made my own instead of using a flavourless cube. It is really easy to do and can be made with the leftover carcass of a chicken, a carrot, celery, an onion (no need to peel or slice) and a bunch of fresh herbs, then chuck them all in with boiling hot water and leave to simmer for an hour or two, then strain.

You can use any kind of bones to make stock:

fish -sublime base for a seafood risotto

lamb -wonderful base for a vegetable soup

beef -beautiful addition to a Daube de Boeuf

Now for the ragù prep: slice 3 carrots into thin disks, chop 2-3 pieces of celery into bitesize pieces and dice your onions super-finely (if you have a food processor, use it).

• Sweat the onions in a pan with a knob of butter and olive oil (onion don't soften as well without butter and butter wont burn as quickly with a drop of oil).
• Get a butter-paper to your Le Creuset/cast-iron pot and then transfer your onions.
• Flash fry your other vegetables with a drop more oil, then add them to the onions.
• Brown your mince (.5kg of pork and 1.5kg of round steak) and add them to the pot.
• Add 2 tins of organic chopped tomatoes and half a tube of tomatoe purée.
• Crisp up 6oz of squared streaky bacon and throw them in too.
• Pour over your strained chicken stock until all the meat and veg are covered.
• Grate half a whole nutmeg, add a glass of reasonably good red wine, sea salt & cracked black pepper.
• Leave to cook for an hour or two, add fresh basil 20 minute before serving.

Because You're Worth It...

Throughout my teens and early twenties I had 'problematic' skin as my mother used to call it. I suppose I unwittingly ate a fair bit of junk food on the sly, drank my weight in vodka & red bulls, combined with a lack of sleep, did nothing to help matters. The only thing I could think of was to wear tonnes of make-up. Thankfully I had the sense to get the palest shade of ivory for my Irish skin so I never looked like I'd been tangoed but I often resembled Casper's sister. My Dad felt my pain and sent me to http://www.annemcdevitt.com/beauty/ where I underwent a series of Glycolic face peels, blue light therapy and became a willing guinea pig for a range of expensive products. The beautician did make an excellent discovery when trying to find the source of my angry red spots at my hairline -eggs!

When I told her I ate possibly 2 eggs per day -she said that this was the cause for these kind of spots and I should cut down to 2-4 eggs per week! This simple change in my diet resulted inthese spots disappearing completely within a fortnight. 

The other change I made was to my beauty regime. My aunt told me about Clinique and their famous 3-Step program. I was hooked instantly especially with the great special offers available with Bonus Time. I started to use their gel facial wash every morning and my skin felt so much fresher and cleared up significantly. 

When I hit 30, I felt my skin begin to feel much tighter and more flaky and thought perhaps my moisturiser wasn't doing the job, so I began to use Clinique's Superdefense which was good but didn't really address the imbalance in my skin. So I spoke to another beautician who  told me that in fact the correct cleanser is even more important than a moisturiser. She recommended I start using Cetaphil, available from most pharmacies for less than €15, which for my tight budget was excellent value for my potentially irritable skin. 

Upon my return to the salon, the beautician informed me that after some thorough investigation they were going to start doing Neo-Strata face peels and stock their products. She gave me a sample of the facial cleanser which contains  4% gluconolactone. This does   loosen and allow the removal of flakey dead skin and dirt. It is like a very light chemical exfoliation everyday. My highly sensitive skin has been super clear and soft ever since, although it's double the price of the former.

Now I'm not one to give recommendations without doing some further research myself, so I Googled the aforementioned products and came up with some surprising results. Cetaphil was slated by all (except dermatologists keen on instantaneous results) because it's packed full of nasty parabens. http://www.wellandgoodnyc.com/2010/07/20/cetaphil-why-the-popular-cleanser-isn%E2%80%99t-doing-your-skin-any-favors/

Neo-Strata got rave reviews worldwide from all my co-bloggettes because of its excellent results on their skin, except when you search in conjunction with the word 'natural' -this is what pops up first    http://www.goodguide.com/categories/152698-facial-cleanser##products.  I for one don't agree with large corporations making their profits at the expense of their workers and the environment. So once I work my way through these products I plan to head for a Health Shop and see whats availble so that my next skin care review will be ethically viable.