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.