Chef notes
Ian used to make spaghetti bolognese for his family every Monday evening, so spaghetti simply had to be in the "BOSH!: Simple Recipes. Amazing Food. All Plants." cookbook. This is our favorite recipe and we use mushrooms for a meaty texture instead of ground meat.
Technique tip: Keep stirring the base ingredients and cook them low and slow in order to draw the flavors out of the tomatoes and spices. The longer you cook this sauce, the better it tastes. If it gets dry, add a little water to loosen things up and keep simmering!
Swap option: Swap in red onions or shallots to replace the white onions. You can even use tinned tomatoes, if you prefer, and dried basil would do just fine, too.
Ingredients
- 1 large onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- Olive oil
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 tablespoons tomato paste
- 5 tablespoons water
- 2 pounds tomatoes
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- Salt and black pepper
Preparation
1.To make the sauce, peel and finely chop the onion and garlic.
2.Add some oil to a large frying pan and cook the onions for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
3.Add the garlic and cook for another minute, until the smell of garlic fills the room. Add in the red wine and stir. Cook for another 5 minutes, until the wine is bubbling and the sauce starts to thicken.
4.Add the oregano and bay leaf and stir.
5.Add the tomato paste and water and stir again.
6.Finely chop the tomatoes and scrape them into the pan with all of the juices.
7.Tear the basil leaves into the pan and stir everything together.
8.Add the sugar and some salt and pepper to taste.
9.Put the lid on the pan, reduce the heat to medium-low and leave to simmer for 15–25 minutes, stirring occasionally. The longer you leave it on the stove, the richer the sauce will be.
10.Uncover and simmer for 10 minutes. When it’s ready, the sauce should be rich, luscious and thick.
11.Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
From the book, "BOSH!." Copyright ©2018 by Henry Firth & Ian Theasby. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
