That's a-Spicy Bolognese!

Tonight I've knocked together a quick bolognese sauce for some pasta. As much as I love finicky cooking and temperatures and adding 35 ingredients by the millilitre to create a secret gastronomical joy-explosion, I also like throwing a bunch of crap together in a pot and doing nothing until it's time to eat.

This is no ordinary throw-together pasta sauce, however! I was lucky enough pick up a few days work running audio-visual at this year's Hilton Masterclass and who should be co-hosting a workshop on spices but Ian “Herbie” Hemphill of Herbie's Spices (my go-to in Australia for difficult to find flavourings - anatto anyone?). He spoke a bit about cinnamon vs cassia - summary : cassia is hot like Big Red gum, cinnamon is the flavour but without the heat. His suggestion was : next time you make a meat sauce, throw in a little cinnamon and see what it does to the other flavours. So I did, and ended up with a beautifully complex bolognese-style meat sauce.

There's no distinct cinnamon taste, but you can definitely notice a special extra-something through the tomato and herb flavours. Another thing you may notice about this recipe - there's no garlic! "What?!?!" I hear you say (I've bugged your home), "You can't cook an Italian dish without garlic!!!" My family are allergic to garlic (manifests as tummy upsets and hangover-like symptoms) and whilst I am able to enjoy it eating out, I have to modify my cooking habits in the house (even the residual smell makes them queasy). So there is no garlic in this recipe, but I think that the cinnamon adds a special kind of sweetness that the garlic would mask, so give this a try and see what you think!

Ingredients
Serves 4 people

• 500g Lean Beef Mince
• 1 tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  
• 3 Shallots (chopped finely)
• 800g Crushed Tomato (two cans)
• 4 tbs Tomato Paste
• 750ml Beef Stock (for this I just use powder and hot water made up as per instructions)
• 250ml Red Wine (Cabernet-Sauvignon is good)
• 1 tbs Mixed Dried Herbs (told you this was throw-together)
• 1 tsp Powdered Cinnamon

Method

1. Heat large saucepan (not a sautee or frypan) and add olive oil.
   
2. When oil is shimmering, add diced shallots and cook until soft and going transparent.
3. Add beef mince and and brown.
4. Add tomatoes and tomato paste, stir well to combine.
5. Add wine, stock, herbs and cinnamon and stir well.
6. Bring to a very, very slow simmer. Simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. It should reduce by about two-thirds to a very thick, shimmering glossy sauce.
7. Serve with pasta.
   

Cooking Notes

• As I mentioned, this is a throw-together. You can substitute the canned tomatoes for fresh and the dried mixed herbs for fresh if you want, but it kind of defeats the point of dumping stuff into a pot and leaving it.
• I spent an interesting 6 months as a dish-pig and kitchen hand at an Italian-style restaurant during my university days, and part of my job was to help with the pasta prep in the morning. I asked the chef who made the sauces why he cooked them for so long (because I had to then scrub out these feral, 120 litre saucepans encrusted with burnt on crud). He replied "Billy, it make for the best of flavour! Is like wine - the longer you cook, the better the flavour!". He had many sharp knives, so I didn't want to point out that you don't actually cook wine to develop the flavour. But I took his meaning and found that it does kind of improve my sauces and soups, as long as it's a very slow simmer.
• If you feel the need, you can run a slender-blender or something through it to make it smoother but I quite like it a little chunky - makes me feel like a rustic chef in a farmhouse somewhere, cooking with ingredients fresh off the vine, over a country hearth. Or I could just be lazy.