This is my personal recipe, perfected by my father and passed on to me; the much maligned sauce at the heart of the "Bolognese" debate, but so loved the world over. Comfort food and a crowd-pleaser, you really can't afford to be without this one in your culinary arsenal.
Overall, this recipe makes the ideal classic tomato sauce for 3 to 4 adult main courses. For those who prefer a less sauce-to-pasta ratio in the traditional Italian style, it goes even further. Whilst you can theoretically “halve” or “double up” on quantities, having cooked it again and again over the years, I do believe that it works best cooked at these quantities in this manner, perhaps trialled on large Italian families over many decades.
Shopping list
Approx. 4 to 5 tablespoons of olive oil, ideally extra virgi
3 to 4 cloves of garlic; finely chopped or crushed—despite all the Italian fetishization, I can’t honestly say that one works better than the other
1 large or 2 medium-sized onions; cubed
One large bell pepper; cubed —red or yellow, ideally, not green unless you prefer a more bitter undertone
500g of Italian passata OR 500g of finely diced canned Italian plum tomatoes. NOT fresh Italian plum tomatoes.
3 to 4 tablespoons of tomato purée — roughly a 142g concentrate tin or from a tube
1 vegetable or beef stock cube/jelly”— knock yourself out if you want fresh stock but I can’t say it makes a difference. Plain or with Italian herbs; avoid French Provencal-style or other herbs
1 large glass of red wine or a standard size glass of red port (gives a deeper flavour). This recipe is ideal for getting rid of the remnants of a bottle of red wine that you don’t want to drink—it doesn’t have to be in prime or drinkable condition
3 tablespoons of mushroom ketchup (optional)
2 standard “squares” of plain dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa
Herbs to flavour
Fresh lemon rind to taste, very finely grated
Cooking method
Place a deep saucepan roughly 20cm in diameter with a lid on a high heat, heating the olive oil, ensuring it's spread evenly across the bottom of the saucepan
When the olive oil is hot, add the garlic, stirring vigorously. Add the chopped onions and sweat, covering the pot, stirring regularly to prevent sticking or charring.
When the onions are soft but before browning/caramelising, stir in the chopped peppers. Sweat it, stirring frequently.
While doing this, boil the kettle with enough water to fill your 500g bottle/carton of passata or tomato can. Pour the passata into the pot. Stir vigorously and slowly pour in the wine/port. Replace the lid, allowing the ingredients to boil vigorously.
Place the stock cube/jelly into the empty passata bottle/carton or tomato can. When the kettle boils, pour the water into the jar/carton/can, mixing the purée and stock into the liquid until the carton/jar/can is filled with stock-purée liquid. Carefully empty the liquid into the pot.
Replace the lid and allow the ingredients to come to the boil. Allow it to boil vigorously at a high heat for 15 to 20 mins, occasionally removing the lid to stir and prevent sticking.
After 15 to 20 mins of boiling, turn down the heat —settings often vary, but this is often around the !2” mark—replace the lid and allow it to cook on a lower temperature for a further 2.5 hours, stirring every 15 to 20 mins, preventing sticking. The liquid should “bubble” gently. If not, gradually increase the heat until it does so with the lid on the saucepan on. Conversely, reduce the if it is boiling too violently.
After about 1 hour, add the particular herbs/spices you prefer and the mushroom ketchup (optional). For a “fresher” taste, opt for chopped basil or flat-leaf parsley; for a “heavier” flavour, use oregano or black pepper. FYI, I only cook with “passive salting” for this dish: the salt from the ingredients and the water in which the pasta is cooked. So it needs no additional salt etc.
If the dish is cooking too quickly or becomes dry and sticks to the pot, simply add water (about a quarter of a cup at a time) and stir it in, ensuring that it is hot enough to “bubble” on the surface of the ingredients
After 2.25 hours of slow cooking, you should have a fairly thick tomato sauce with a little rich, “oily” liquid concentrated at the edges of the pot. If it still seems “too liquid”, remove the lid and allow it to bubble for longer until it reduces appropriately
Approx. 25 mins before serving, grate the chocolate and/or lemon rind into the pot with a fine grater; stir thoroughly and allow to simmer
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