ASK Italian cook at home Fettuccine #respectthepasta

So the challenge was set for our family to cook a recipe from ‘The Ask Italian Cookbook’.  I’m sure that most families will make their favourite Italian dish at home on a regular basis, ours being the kid’s favourite spaghetti bolognese, which is always made by GamingDaddyof2.  He loves cooking Italian cuisine so I handed the responsibility over to him to make us a ‘Fettucine Bolognese’.
To make the bolognese sauce you will need:

4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 large white onion
450g lean minced beef
4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
100ml red wine
150ml beef stock
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
500g passata
5 fresh basil leaves (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley (finely chopped)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper

There were a few ingredients that we don’t normally put in our bolognese, things like beef stock, squeeze of half a lemon, fresh basil, but because of the extra liquid it meant that we had to simmer the sauce for longer.  Normally our bolognese is ready in 40 mins, which is necessary when you’ve got young kids demanding your attention all the time.  Still, hubby said that he enjoyed making this bolognese sauce and he is likely to make this recipe again in the near future.

First you must heat the oil in a large pan on a low heat and add the chopped onion, which must be cooked slowly until it has become soft and transparent.

Next add the beef mince and let it brown slightly, ensuring that you break the meat up with a fork and stirring constantly.  When the meat no longer looks raw, add in the chopped garlic.  Then add the wine, turn up the heat and cook for about 5 minutes, until the wine has evaporated.

Then add the beef stock, tomatoes and passata.  Season the dish with herbs, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and salt.  Bring to the boil and cook for about 5 minutes, making sure that you stir often.  At this point taste the seasoning and see whether any more pepper needs to be added.

Lower the heat and cook the sauce gently for about an hour and 2 minutes with the lid off.  stir often to make sure the sauce doesn’t stick.  At this point hubby added about 6 mushrooms finely diced to simmer with the sauce.

Approximately 10 minutes from the sauce being ready, stick some fettuccine pasta into a pan of boiling water and cook for the amount of time specified on the packet.  When ready place the fettuccine into the pan of bolognese sauce and mix together.  Once this has gently cooked for about a minute, serve immediately and garnish with a sprinkling of fresh parsely.

You can also make some garlic butter and spread this over a part baked baguette to go with your meal.

So here is the finished dish.  The girls and I absolutely loved the taste of the bolognese sauce, and the fettuccine pasta held the sauce really well as I was piling it on to my fork.  Hubby did admit that he added mushrooms to the dish but that was only because Elizabeth always expects them in her bolognese. I think we would definitely use fettuccine again soon.

On a separate note, I really appreciated the book’s dedication to the chosen charity ‘Great Ormond Street Hospital’.  It was so nice seeing photographs in the book where the chefs made dishes for kids and their families of the hospital.