Spaghetti Bolognese

Spaghetti Bolognese

What?  WHAT?!?!?!  Am I trying to KILL YOU?!?!?!  Nope.  This is FAILSAFE spag bol.

NO!  Really!  Honest!!!

It all started on 'Cooking for Oscar'.  Sandra made a Failsafe 'No-Tomato Sauce'.   Then people on the Facebook Failsafe pages were sharing what they had made with it.  They used it as a dipping sauce,  as a ketchup,  a dressing and as an ingredient anywhere you'd use a tomato passata.  (You can see where I'm going, right?)

So,  trusting all my friends in the computer I gave it a whirl.  When I said "Failsafe Bolognese" Ms D jumped on me in excitement.  (No, really.  She jumped into my arms.  Did I mention she's in grade 6?!?!)   I told her to calm down because I had no idea how it was going to turn out...  but she kept jumping up and down.  Yeah,  no pressure.

Luckily,  it was delish!  And SO EASY.  I had already made the No-Tomato Sauce and had it in portions in the freezer.  The rest was dead easy.

In the end...  how did it taste?  Well...  it was a very passable bolognese!  And I tried whiskey once again (my second splash at it) which gave it a grown up flavour.  The mouth feel was right and the tang was perfect.

Ingredients:

• 500g steak mince
• 1/2 Leek, quartered and sliced
• 2-3 cloves of Garlic, crushed
• 1-2 sticks Celery, sliced
• 1 medium Carrot*, finely diced
• 1/4 cup Whiskey
• about 400-800ml No-Tomato Sauce  (to taste)  
• about 400ml water

Method:

• Sautée vegetables, set aside
• Brown mince and add vegetables back
• Add whiskey and cook for a minute or so on high heat, stirring
• Add No-Tomato Sauce about 200mls of Water and bring gently to boil,  stirring frequently
• Simmer for at least 30 minutes and add water as necessary
• Cook enough pasta for your brood and I'll assume you know how to serve Spag Bol.

* Moderate Salicylates

Verdict: You know my Mr JR?  He's the one who is always leaving the table and needs to be coaxed to eat what we consider enough to exist.   (There are no 'finishing your plate' rules, but please make an effort)  Well,  he sat, he ate and then he got seconds.  I don't remember him getting seconds before.  Ms C had... FIVE serves.  Mr JA also sat and ate, no coaxing required and Ms D also had 2 or 3 helpings.  I call that SUCCESS BEYOND MY WILDEST DREAMS.

Tweeks:  Depending on your intolerances,  you can add a lot more vege.  Grated choko, grated and peeled zucchini*, sliced green beans....  but don't get too far away from the original Spag Bol idea.