Bolognese Meat Sauce

Ingredients:

- 800 g (1.76 lbs) beef mince (fattier mince is more authentic tasting in the end, but lean mince is just as good if you prefer that)
- Olive oil
- 50 g (.22 cups) Butter
- 2 onions
- 3 medium carrots
- 4 celery sticks
- 2 tins chopped Italian plum tomatoes (or one tin if you want your meat sauce to be meatier)
- 250 ml (8.4 ounces) milk
- 250 ml (8.4 ounces) white wine
- nutmeg
- herbs of your choice (or none, as is the traditional way)
- salt and pepper

Step 1:

Chop and fry the onions in the butter and oil over a medium heat until they start going soft.

Then chop your celery and carrots.

Step 2:

Cook the carrots and celery with the onions for about five minutes.

Add the beef and cook for another five or so minutes (until it starts to go brown).

Add the milk and simmer until the milk has completely evaporated. Then do the same with the wine.

The reason for the milk is to prepare the meat for the acid from the wine and tomatoes later on, it protects the flavor. It's very important to let it all bubble away, as nobody likes milky bolognese.

Step 3:

Grate some nutmeg in (not too much).

Add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.

At this point you may also add herbs of you choosing. We chose thyme on that particular day.

Step 4:

Now turn the heat down so that the mixture bubbles VERY slowly.

Leave for 3 hours, adding a little for water if need be.

This is about half way through the three hours.

Step 5:

Serve your bolognese meat sauce over spaghetti with Parmesan.

Yum!

The good thing about this is that you can leave it for as long as you need really, just turn it off and resume cooking later.

Remember to only use one tin of tomatoes and no herbs for a more authentic sauce.