Had one of those pricing surprises I talk about today. I made a Spaghetti Bolognese using a recipe, not one of those mince splodge things I do, when I add all kinds of things to stretch the mix.
I used the recipe from a book called Silver Spoon, which is the equivalent of Mrs Beeton in Italy. Young brides are given it and it has just about every Italian recipe you could think of. I’m going to be trying a pasta sauce made with walnuts soon, sounds very delicious.
Had one of those pricing surprises I talk about today. I made a Spaghetti Bolognese using a recipe, not one of those mince splodge things I do, when I add all kinds of things to stretch the mix.
I used the recipe from a book called Silver Spoon, which is the equivalent of Mrs Beeton in Italy. Young brides are given it and it has just about every Italian recipe you could think of. I’m going to be trying a pasta sauce made with walnuts soon, sounds very delicious.
I priced this up as I had a feeling it was going to come out ok, and sure enough, 41p. When I started making it I didn’t expect such a meaty sauce to cost out.For 4 portions, you will need
250g mince beef, Morrisons, 500g/£2.49, £1.24
100g onion, Asda, 98p/2kg, 5p
100g carrots, Sainsbury, 89p/1.5kg, 6p
15g tomato purée, tin 142g/35p, 4p
400g value spaghetti, 30p/500g, 24p
Chop the vegetables and add to a frying pan with the minced beef. Sauté until the meat is brown and the vegetables soft. Season well. Add the tomato purée and simmer gently for about an hour. Use a slow cooker if you can to minimise fuel use. You don’t need to cook it that long for it to taste good, but the extra long cooking time does make a difference to the flavour. Add a splash of water if the pan gets too dry.
Your ragu sauce is now ready and can be used with tagliatelle as recommended in Silver Spoon, or spaghetti as we will here.
When you want to eat, boil the spaghetti for 10 minutes in salted water. Drain. Add the sauce to the spaghetti and serve in warm bowls. Add a little grated Parmesan if you like. You won’t need much, 10g was the amount I used.
I really liked the authentic Italian flavour, but Mike said he would have preferred more tomato in it. So, see what you think, as it is, or more tomato? At 41p, you have the option, and still stay within the 50p budget.
Yes, overall, I think I too would prefer more tomato. I wanted to try the Silver Spoon recipe just as it was. I bet the Worcester sauce was good
I would have preferred more tomato, although your recipe was very tasty. I like to add further ingredients and experiment with the flavor. The last one (before yours) I tried, I added a bit of cinnamon as well as some Worcestershire sauce and it was delicious.
It was just what I had in. I give as much info as I can to enable anyone to reproduce the cost of the dish. If you know that the carrots I used cost x pence, then you know you need to get them at that price or less to make the recipe at that price point. I’m not suggesting you go to three different supermarkets, that wouldn’t make sense at all.
41p plus the petrol driving to each of the supermarkets listed to get the cheapest ingredients!