Milan La Roche's (St Kilda) recipe for Belgian spaghetti bolognese
Quick and easy – the perfect pasta recipe to whip up right away to make the rest of the week more bearable. This week, discover Milan La Roche's Bolognese sauce, the chef at the Brussels restaurant St. Kilda. (With a name like that, did you think he was going to make you soba noodles?)
- 500g of minced pork and veal
- 150g of thinly sliced bacon
- 1 large knob of butter
- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
- 2 onions
- 2-3 carrots
- 3 celery stalks
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- 1 fresh chili pepper
- 1 can of peeled cherry tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 1-2 bay leaves
- Olive oil
- Nutmeg powder
- Cell
- Pepper
- Mince the garlic and fresh chili pepper. Dice the onions, carrots, and celery stalks. Heat a saucepan over high heat. Once it's hot, add a drizzle of oil and the bacon, spreading it evenly. When the bacon is nicely browned, add the carrots, onions, celery, garlic, chili pepper, butter, and a generous pinch of salt. Stir gently for 5 minutes. Add the ground meat, breaking it up—but not too much, so that some chunks remain. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring gently, then add the tomato paste and sugar. Cook for a further 2-3 minutes, stirring well, then add the can of tomatoes, an equal amount of water, and the bay leaves. Simmer for 1 to 3 hours over low heat, stirring occasionally. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
- You can always jazz up the sauce to your liking: deglaze with wine after adding the tomato paste, omit the butter and replace the meat with red lentils for a vegan version, or add Tabasco, Gruyère, Comté, Parmesan… or all three. The sauce can be frozen in small batches; it can always come in handy when you get home from a night out.
“In most Belgian families, we eat spaghetti bolognese at least once a week. But at my house, we didn’t eat meat, my mother being a vegetarian… So when she was away, my father and I would make ourselves a rebellious spaghetti bolognese, with Haribo sweets and a DVD. Every Belgian has their own recipe for bolognese, but I think the goal is always the same: that it be quick to prepare, tasty, and edible more or less quickly… and that the pot is full, so there’s some left over for the next day – it’s even better!”
