Mama Mia thats a bland meatball,help!

Defcon 5

I have a problem my forte as a student was to whip up a huge pot of spag bol using the various ready made brand bol sauce's throwing in a few onions and it went down a treat but after a year of my culinary delight the masses have demanded I cook a traditional spag bol the only problem is that it tastes so bland. Can any one shed some light on my problem what can i do to make a spicey meatball feast worthy of my working class buddies?? Any recipes??

What I usually do is in a pot pour a tin of chopped tomatoes with garlic and onion which have already been sautees with garlic,then i add tomatoe puree and mix till heated and then pour in already browned mince and leave to simmer for ten minutes , but it just doesnt have a great flavour and I really want to blow these people away besides that I fricken love spag Bol. Thanks

Shabadu

Add a mixture of the following stock cupboard essentials:

Some nice condensed chicken stock, Marks do it in jars, or just use a knorr stock cube.

Dash of wocerteshire sauce and tabasco.

Pinch of chilli flakes.

Herbs- oregano and basil, use dried if you can't get fresh.

Splash of olive oil.

Splash of red wine/port or even a good sherry.

Splash of balsamic vinegar.

Pinch of sugar.

A bit of freshly grated nutmeg.

Freshly ground pepper, and salt.


Not all of the above are traditional, but they are the secrets to blow-me-down flavour in a cheap and cheerfull quick meal. Good luck! Keep experimenting, and you'll find your favourite combination.

Alun

If I'm making a "spag bol" (as opposed to a "proper" spaghetti bolognese) I'll do the onions and garlic first, then brown the mince together with them. Then add the tomato puree, stir for a minute or two and then add the tomatoes. Of course all the usual things, like salt and freshly ground black pepper and herbs (usually oregano) and a small bit of sugar (1/4 to 1/2 tsp). In addition I usually add mushrooms and sometimes a small chopped green pepper.

After that, you need to cook it slowly, and for a lot longer than the 10 minutes you stated to let the flavours meld properly. I think that's where you're going wrong, personally.

Tazz T

Throw in a beef stock cube, some mushies and, as above, cook for at least 40 mins.

Don't scrimp on the oregano. And a good glass of red wine to deglaze the pan after the mince has browned will help the sauce.

BaZmO*

A little tip to add extra flavour is to throw in some finely chopped Pancetta(sp?) with the Onions and Garlic and Olive Oil. If you can't get Pancetta use smoked Streaky Bacon (finely chopped).

B.

segadreamcast

For me, it's all about the vegetables - it's not professional, probably a bit more 'amateur chefy' than anything but I tasted it once in Italy like this and loved it ...so, basically, use red+yellow+orange peppers, organic if you can - balsamic vinegar and some herbs too as well as the usual stuff (mushrooms (****take if ya can), garlic, FRESH tomatoes and lots of them - not puree, salt+pepper, a little onion) and let it melt down for a long time at a low-ish temp.

Brand bol sauces are A. Rank B. Monotonous and C. Contain MSG, which is not your friend.

bonkey

Getting back to the original question...

I generally use this recipe for my tomato sauce.

For spag bol, I would fry the mince using salt, pepper, paprika, ground/powdered sage and ground/powdered rosemary to flavour it. My other half (who wrote the tomato sauce recipe above) also uses Aromat, which is basically MSG with some small amount of other flavours.

The trick, I find, is to slightly over-flavour your mince when frying, as this will help it retain a flavour seperate to the tomato sauce once the two are mixed.

Also consider adding a few drops of tabasco to the tomato sauce. Go for the green variety if you don't want *heat*, but rather just flavour.

BTW...if you can't get decent fresh tomatoes, go for tinned. It might sound crazy, but decent tinned tomatoes will have far better flavour than a lot of those slightly-crunchy-even-when-ripe, greenhouse-grown, not-ripened-on-the-vine tomatoes that are all too common.

jc

Tree

canned tomatoes are dead handy really. the chopped ones anyway

try adding a small bit of sweet chilli sauce, add sweetness witha touch of chilli, turns out quite nice

Shabadu

MSG discussion moved to new thread in main forum

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054882450