by Irfan Shah

Created on: October 10, 2009   Last Updated: October 11, 2009

My own, very particular, Spaghetti Bolognese

This recipe has heft. Usually this is a bad thing to say about food, implying heaviness or stodginess, but I mean it as a compliment. This is good, hearty fare with a wide enough range of flavours and ingredients to make it a delicious take on a classic recipe.

It's not a subtle dish; there are broad strokes involved, and yet there is still a certain amount of awareness and restraint needed in the making of it. This Bolognese recipe has a sweetness to it that is ravishing, and to keep this sweetness under control and allow the herbs to retain a presence, attention is required attention and frequent tasting!

At the same time, the foundation ingredients are still robust enough to allow you to throw handfuls of this and that in, which is what makes this such an enjoyable dish to make.

I developed this recipe from the one my mum always made us, and I'm sure she developed it more than a little herself as she is wont to do. I know I'm not the only person in the world who thinks their mum's cooking is unequalled, but I do really think that nothing tastes as happy and flavour some as one of mum's dishes.

Anyway she would always make this in a huge steel pot which meant there was plenty left over to be frozen and eaten throughout the week.

My modus operandi would be to feast on the spag bol recipe on an evening, tucking in with all the restraint of a syphilitic Roman emperor, before sitting back semi-comatose and with orange sauce all around my mouth, like a post-coital clown.

Then, the rest of the week would be punctuated by cheeky little Sloppy Joes the bread turning orange with the sweet sauce....

Another reason this recipe is so special to me is because it was the first one I could make without needing specific weights and measurements for the ingredients. It allowed me to cook intuitively for the first time.

My culinary adventures began with me as someone who poured milk into a measuring jug whilst kneeling on the floor so that I could see the 200ml mark straight on.

Mum's Bolognese was something I very quickly learned to judge by the taste, smell and consistency of it. I enjoyed playing with the colours of the food, enjoyed stirring it whilst drinking wine, and enjoyed the herby sweetness wafting out in the steam and filling the kitchen with the promise of good food.

One last thing before the recipe itself I was going to put this article into the Bolognese sauce section, however, in my version of this recipe I include

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