So for those you know me personally they would know I love to cook.  Now I don’t claim to be the best cook in the world, nor would I ever.  I do however, cook the shit out of some meals!

Living in Australia everyone has their own fool-proof way of making Bolognese sauce, which if tampered with can create riots amongst the people.  Although not traditional, my version is a jazzed up, reinvented take on this italian classic…

Growing up as a kid we would always have pasta a few times a week and at the top of the list was spaghetti bog. A rich dose of yumminess, everyone around the table would be left satisfied.  As I became an adult living out of home, I needed to feed myself and cooking ol’ faithful became a weekly thing.  My brother (and fabulous cook in his own right) and I would always try to jazz the simple sauce up by adding a few extras eg. Kalamata olives, Chillies, capsicum or peppers to any Yanks reading this, and a variety of spices.

Now as soon as you start adding all these extras into the sauce for italians it loses the right to be called Bolognese… so it will now be refered to as Jackos Jazzed up pasta sauce or JJUPS… call it J-Jups. Fuck I’m a weirdo…

Moving on to actually making this beast… I love to cook this low and slow.  I made some last night and had it on the stove, developing all the rich flavours for about 3 hours… not working during the day helps with the fact I can start this at about 3 or 4pm and it’ll be devoured at about 7pm… just in time for some Tracey Grimshaw ‘A Current Affair’!! haha

Ok here we go…

-Ingredients-

• 500g Beef Mince
• 2 cans crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups/500ml chicken stock
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 brown onion
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 green/red capsicum (or half of each)
• handful button mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 long hot chilli
• 1 tbsp baby capers
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 3 tbsp greek yoghurt
• 4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• at your own discretion 2 tsp smoked paprika
• at your own discretion 1 tsp cumin, curry, chilli powder
• 1 tbsp mixed herbs
• handful chopped coriander (cilantro) if you desire
• good glug or Red Wine
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• parmesan cheese for garnish

Seems like a lot, but most of these are staple ingredients and trust me it’ll be worth it…

-Method-

1. Dice onion, carrot, capsicum and garlic… in a large pot/pan/casserole dish add olive oil and onion on a low/medium heat.  Sautee for a few minutes until slightly softened and then add carrots, capsicum, and garlic. Sautee for a few more minutes then add spices (paprika, cumin, chilli powder) and season with some salt and pepper.
   

   
2. Combine spice and then add Dijon mustard… give a few stirs then add beef mince.  Now you can turn the heat on high and cook the mince thoroughly
3. Once the meat has browned and there a no more red uncooked bits of mince, add the red wine.  Simmer for 1 minute then add canned tomatoes, tomato paste and stock (to get all the tomatoes out of the can pour the stock into the empty cans before adding to the pot)
   

   
4. Stir through until all combined.  I like to add the chopped chilli and mixed herbs now but that’s up to you, along with the Worcestershire sauce  Bring to the boil, turn heat down to low and place the lid on the pot… now go relax, have a beer or wine.  Check on your sauce every 20 minutes or so stirring it around to keep it from catching on the bottom of the pot.
5. After about 2 hours you can now add the roughly chopped mushrooms, kalamata olives, baby capers and half chopped coriander… mix through and keep cooking with lid on.
6. After another 30 minutes add the greek yoghurt, stir through and also check the seasoning… if it need more salt and pepper add to taste (the olives and capers will provide added salty taste also)
   

   
7. At this stage if you leave the lid off, cooking it for another 30 minutes you will start to see the sauce thicken… just keep stirring regularly to keep from burning.
8. After about 3 hours this sauce should be ready… adjust time to suit how wet or dry you want the sauce.  Stir through some more coriander
9. Serve with any type of pasta you want, topped with parmesan cheese and chopped coriander.
10. Eat this motherfucker!

NB If you don’t like coriander, don’t use it… I love it and it hurts me inside when people are coriander bashing… coriander just wants to be eaten like all the other herbs.

Sara (the missus) is coeliac so we eat Gluten free everything… and to be honest, the gluten-free pasta isn’t too bad

Enjoy this meal and I hope it fills your gut with the pleasure it gives me!!