I’ve now been tagged in two memes. I’m a good sport when it comes to such things. So thanks Ali. I will use this opportunity to once again share one of my recipes with the world.

According to the rules of this “meme” I’m to pick an ingredient from Ali’s recipe and share a recipe that uses the ingredient. Luckily there are a few ingredients to choose from… I’m going to go with butter. Because that rules almost nothing out. And I’m going to share my recipe for spaghetti bolognese. It’s not quite a “from scratch” special – I could, given the inclination, probably use fresh tomatoes. But I haven’t yet. And I like this one a fair bit…

What you’ll need (I normally do a big batch of this because it’s just as good the next day, and the next, etc.):

Ingredients
(some quantities are estimates)

• Spaghetti
• 1kg Mince
• 1 big tin of Heinz Tomato Soup (500ml)
• 1 big tin of crushed/diced tomatoes
• 1 jar of sun dried tomatoes
• Lots of mushrooms
• A carrot (grated)
• 2 medium sized onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Assorted herbs and spices (of an Italian bent)
• 100ml of cream
• Enough butter to lubricate the saucepan/wok, and nicely brown the onions and garlic

What to do

1. Slice the onion, crush one clove of garlic, cook on medium to high heat with the butter.
2. When the onion starts browning, add the mushrooms.
3. Add the mince.
4. When the mince starts to brown add the sun dried tomatoes (I normally add a little bit of the oil from the sun dried tomato jar/container too. Stir them through.
5. Add the tinned tomato and tomato soup – tomato soup is great because it has a rich, slightly salty flavour. This mix is, in my opinion, better than any pasta sauce on the market.
6. Cook your spaghetti while letting the bolognese simmer.
7. Add the carrot.
8. Add the cream, stir through, the sauce should be a goldy colour.
9. Crush your other garlic clove and stir it through the bolognese. Add your herbs based on taste and personal preference.
10. Your spaghetti should be ready soon – throw a piece at the wall to see if it sticks (remove any water from the spaghetti strand first).

Serve in a bowl with cheese.

The end.

I tag whichever four of you volunteer first.

We’ll probably be doing this with our cooking friend this week – let me know if you’ve got ideas for ingredients that I might not have considered.

Author: Nathan Campbell

Nathan runs St Eutychus. He is currently a student at the Queensland Theological College. In a previous professional life he worked in public relations for an economic development and tourism marketing organisation. He is married to Robyn. He likes coffee and the internet.

Nathan has produced 3149 articles.