Ek-Hou-Van-BraaiMar 13

I kinda ruined my favorite recipe by perfecting it.

Until recently, I really didn’t know how to cook properly.

One of the things I used to make often was spaghetti bolognese. It was high in protein, fit my diet well, it was reasonably healthy, and so I made it about twice a week. The recipe was very simple: mince, onions, spaghetti, and a bottle of pasta sauce from the store.

Over time I started experimenting. I tried different recipes, added more ingredients, cooked parts separately, and let the sauce simmer longer. Bit by bit it evolved.

Now I make the sauce from scratch, cook the mince in a separate pan, add finely diced carrots and a do a bunch of extra steps I never used to, as well as letting everything simmer for a two hours.

The result is honestly fucking delicious and better than any spaghetti bolognese I’ve had in restaurants.

The problem is that it went from being my easy go-to meal to something that actually takes effort. I used to make it multiple times a week, but now I barely do.

And the worst part is I can’t go back to the old version anymore, because it just tastes disappointing.

I just wanted to rant, I’m frustrated because I want the dish more, but don’t want all of the added effort.

Show threadEk-Hou-Van-Braai
PS. I’m heading to the shop now to buy all the ingredients I need to make this, gota start soon else I’ll eat way too late. Can’t not make it at least once a week.
Mar 13 at 5:22pmWeb
Show threadnormanwallMar 13
Can you make a big batch and save some leftovers in the fridge or freezer? I think it’s great that you have perfected it, I’m happy for you.
Show threadEk-Hou-Van-BraaiMar 13

I’ll try that once, but I doubt it will be the same. My oven & microwave have been broken for like 3 months so I’ve been learning to cook a lot!!

It’s also pretty good for my mental health to have to run to the shop every day and make food, else I just end up on the computer all day.

So I kinda force myself to cook and go to the shops most days

Show threadnullMar 13

Being in the same situation, I ended up getting some big, silicon “ice cube” trays (if you used them for ice cubes the cubes would be huge). Each slot holds ~a serving of pasta sauce.

We’ll make up batches of sauce and freeze them in these trays. Then you can pop a cube into a saucepan, add some cream (or other liquid base that makes sense for the sauce) and heat it up while you make the pasta.

In my experience it works and tastes great, and makes it super easy for when you don’t have time or energy to cook.

Show threadSterile_TechniqueMar 13
We did this with tomato paste, since every recipe that uses it only ever needs 1 tbsp, and it’s sold in… idk, 6 oz? cans… put 1 tbsp dollops into an icecrube tray, froze em, then popped em out and threw them into a plastic bag and right back into the freezer. Now we just grab a tomato cube whenever we need one.
Show threadxtr0nMar 13
Could you make a double or quadruple sauce recipe and freeze it? Making a bigger batch of bolognese doesn’t take significantly more time and then you can quickly reheat portions and boil the pasta for a quick weeknight meal. If you brown the meat then that would add extra time since you would need to brown one portion of meat at a time, since it will steam rather than brown if you overcrowd the pan.