Recipes: Bolognese Con Carne

My kids love Bolognese, and so do I, but I also love Chilli Con Carne. I try to keep some Chilli on the go either on the hob or in the fridge at all times if possible.

Unfortunately, they aren’t as keen.

So the challenge was on to find a balance between the two, to keep everyone happy. That’s when I came up with the idea for Bolognaise Con Carne.

Serves 6

You will need:

1kg of Minced Beef (get the lowest fat content you can find)

4 x tinned chopped or plum tomatoes (plum if you like the tomatoes to have a chunky texture)

Dried mixed herbs

2 x tablespoons of Garlic Paste (highlight in red for MUST HAVE list include link of ingredients to keep in cupboard)

Mild Chilli powder (highlight in red for MUST HAVE list of ingredients to keep in cupboard)

Chilli Con Carne powder mix (Schwartz or supermarket own brand)

One glass of red wine

2 x OXO cubes or good quality beef stock

For some reason, removing the word ‘Chilli’ from the title means that 2 year old Eva and 7 year old Sienna don’t scream out in pain at the very mention of this cleverly worded ‘spicy’ dish.

Heat your saucepan or slow cooker, and put in a good glug of olive oil. Give it a minute before putting your garlic paste and onions in. Give them a few minutes to get some colour, then put the beef mince in.

At this point, make sure you break the beef mince down as much as possible by using a wooden spoon or something similar. Keep the mixture moving so that everything cooks thoroughly.

Once the beef, onions and garlic are cooked you must drain the fat. This will make a huge difference to the final flavour and make everything taste more meaty and less fatty. It will also pull together all the flavours in the dish making it far more tasty than if you hadn’t.

Once the meat etc is drained, get it back on the heat. Put your dried herbs, beef stock, chilli mix (use 1/2 of the mix as described on pack to reduce spiciness) and red wine in. Add some salt and pepper and give it a few minutes on the higher heat so that the alcohol is cooked out of the wine, then put the saucepan lid on and set to slow cook or a smidge above the lowest setting on the hob.

Cook for 2 hours.

If you’re using a slow cooker, it’s up to you which setting you choose but we’d recommend the slowest speed possible, as the longer you cook it the better it’ll taste.

Incidentally, if you are looking for a slow cooker we’d recommend the Sage Multicooker, which will set you back just £100 but pays for itself after just a few uses. Our review can be found here (insert link).

Once cooked, take off the heat and serve with your choice or rice (Uncle Ben’s whole meal microwaveable rice is perfect for this and takes literally two minutes in the microwave), spaghetti or crusty bread.