Thread: Necron99 does Italiano...

I like slow one pot cooking, it's easy, and particularly with tomato based recipes almost impossible to fuck up. The only rules you need to remember and the ones your results live and die by is that you can always add spice but never take it out and undercooking can be fixed, but overcooking goes in the bin.. You can have hours to adjust flavours, so take your time, anything underdone in the pan will get slow cooked in the pot.

I love spaghetti bolognese, it's the first thing I ever really cooked and is dead simple. But while the basics are simple, it's also a dish that lends itself readily to small tweaks in ingredients allowing you to create your own definitive version.

45 minutes to prep, 2 or 3 hours to cook with a handy already open bottle of red nearby.

So put on Credence's excellent double album Pendulum and head for the kitchen.





What goes in the pot?

Beef mince 1kg
Pork mince 1kg
Chicken mince (didn't have any)
Beef and Pork stock 1 cup each
Tomato paste Most of 1 tin, reserve some for adding later if needed.
Canned tomatoes 2 tins (whole or diced, no matter)*
Onions 2 large
Garlic 6 cloves
Fresh Mushrooms
For a big pot a tablespoon of;
..Parsley
..Oregano
..Basil
^ more if using fresh leaves.
Some Bay leaf
Shredded carrot, a handful (for Dillinger)
Fresh Ginger ( a thumb joint sized bit)
Some fresh chili
Dried chili
Red wine 2/3 cup or so
Beer as required. Beer is an all purpose liquid additive that adds flavour to any dish. Don't have stock? Use beer.
Parmesan Cheese
Possibly salt (I find stocks in Thailand are loaded with salt so I leave this out until later)






* Whole tomatoes will break down with some help from your spoon after an hour or so and give the dish a rustic feel.
This brand was pretty shite though, some were still green.

Step 1

Everything straight into the pot except the meat, onions, mushrooms, garlic, chili, ginger and chocolate.




Set on a very low simmer. If you used whole canned tomatoes you can mash 'em up a bit to help them break down in the slow cook.




Step 2

Dice all the green stuff, brown it off* and into the pot.
Onions and chili together in one batch, garlic and ginger in another, big cracks of rough crushed black pepper in both. All in the pot.







Lightly saute the mushrooms in a little butter. Into the pot.


^ Even though I specifically reminded her......


*Vegetable or olive oils are not a friend to slow pots, try to use as little as possible. Use bacon grease if your arteries can handle it.


Step 3

Season the meat with fine ground pepper and brown off in batches then into the pot.
Make sure to drain all the fat and water out of the meat before adding it to the pot, it adds a nasty underflavour if not removed.



Thai supermarket mince is loaded with water.


Step 4

Use beer to add any needed pot level top up.



We want to start with a high fluid level.
Bring your pot to the boil and give it 5-10 min or so while stirring and finishing your beer.




Put it down on a moderate to low simmer with pot lid on and start on the open bottle of wine.

Step 5

Go somewhere comfortable with your wine and relax to the rest of Credence.
After 30 min, go open your pot, it should smell wonderful. Have a taste and adjust any flavours that haven't developed. Leave simmering with the pot lid open a few inches, give it a stir and a taste every now and then. This lets the sauce reduce a little and also fills your house with the smell of little Italy.


About an hour and a half in on a very low simmer



This scum is oil from the meat or browning, use a spoon to remove it before the final stirring.




Add a little more fresh basil and Done!




Step 6

Do your pasta in salty water, if a bit sticks to the wall when thrown it is aldente..


Plate up and grab some vino and add a piece of garlic and herb toast for mopping up.





Add some Parmesan




























Bellissimo! Justa lika Moma used to make! ........better actually, my Mom couldn't cook worth a damn....but she is a better shopper than Mrs Memory Like A Fuckin Sieve...






If you enjoyed this post and would like to see other MEAT related posts by Necron99 please send a stamped self addressed envelope and some fucking MEAT to Necron99 care of this forum.

That's a lot of mince Giuseppe.

wanna backy on my Vespa ?

Originally Posted by Dillinger

That's a lot of mince Giuseppe.

Hadnt eaten since yesterday morning in anticipation. Like I said, I love spag bol.

Originally Posted by Dillinger

wanna backy on my Vespa ?

I'm not that sot of guy....deviant.

Besides, probably break it after eating that.

Love the burp at the end!!

Solid effort from (what I assume is) A pedestrian Chef

Your recipe/technique was damn near perfect... Aside from the carrots, Ginger and beer... Beer? Really? A nice Port would have been brilliant. Starting with a very hot pan before dropping in your onion is the best thing you can do... Then reducing the heat so they don't brown right away because extracting every last drop of flavor an onion has to offer is key in all dishes similar to Bolognese.

I was poised to go at you for not scooping the scum off the top with your spoon but as I read on I realized you were all over it. You did point out that this is your rendition and I must say again good work.

About time I put up some cooking threads but the problem is posting pics to TD is a fuckin' chore and it links a bunch of sick fuks to my photobucket account.

My first food related thread will either be a sautéed salmon with spinach, Spaetzle and Beurre rouge or a fresh butternut squash ravioli with sage-brown butter sauce.

I really should put something like that up soon. Maybe this weekend.

Originally Posted by Necron99

This brand was pretty shite though, some were still green.

Yeah that brand is pretty shit. I've stopped buying them. I think a kilo of tomatoes was only about 40bt last time I was in Makro.

^^^ Admirable sentiments, but done again in 20 years my Italian will still look and taste the same.
Those will not....

Originally Posted by Nokturnal

Solid effort from (what I assume is) A pedestrian Chef

Your recipe/technique was damn near perfect... Aside from the carrots, Ginger and beer... Beer? Really? A nice Port would have been brilliant. Starting with a very hot pan before dropping in your onion is the best thing you can do... Then reducing the heat so they don't brown right away because extracting every last drop of flavor an onion has to offer is key in all dishes similar to Bolognese.

I was poised to go at you for not scooping the scum off the top with your spoon but as I read on I realized you were all over it. You did point out that this is your rendition and I must say again good work.

About time I put up some cooking threads but the problem is posting pics to TD is a fuckin' chore and it links a bunch of sick fuks to my photobucket account.

My first food related thread will either be a sautéed salmon with spinach, Spaetzle and Beurre rouge or a fresh butternut squash ravioli with sage-brown butter sauce.

I really should put something like that up soon. Maybe this weekend.

Yes, it's my "take", not a traditional bolognese which would also use milk (depending on where you come from) and would not have chili.

The carrot adds body and dissolves thickening the sauce.
The ginger adds to the overall, if not ginger I would add a few dashes of Worcestershire.
Beer in cooking is basically a slightly sweet grain stock, port would be nice but I've already added red wine.

Try the recipe.

Thank god none of you work in restaurants.

food should look and taste sexy

Looks great necron, spag bogs always a crowd pleaser, Good tucker if you have just come off a 3 day twister to

If you need salt try adding some anchovies instead. They brek down and add another depth to the flavor. Also good is a little chopped chicken liver with the mince.

Originally Posted by Necron99

^^^ Admirable sentiments, but done again in 20 years my Italian will still look and taste the same.
Those will not....

These still looked pretty good 20 years later....





Just sayin', like...

Looks lovely, N99. Mr NR particularly liked this thread