Well, in case you did, no I haven't ;)
In fact, in our family there was a long pause from Sauce Bolognese that lasted for about ten years ever since my Mum started cooking vegetarian food.
This was one of the few things that I was sad about back then, since Sauce Bolognese, Lasagna Bolognese, Goulash and Schinkennudeln (= ham noodles) were, I think, the only meat-containing things that I ever truly liked. Well...liked. In that case...I loved them!
My Mum used to make large - and when I say large I mean large, such as two giant pressure cookers full - batches of sauce Bolognese for freezing, which was an afternoon filling task. I remember I used to leave the door of my room open when she did that, just because I loved the smell. And this has to say something since, as a kid, there were things upon smelling which I would hide in my room for a day. Probably that was a bit crazy, but well...
The original recipe is from a small cookbook on Italian cooking, which gives the most amazing Bolognese. It needs to cook for several hours, but the time is so worth it!
Then, two years ago, my Mum and I decided that we absolutely needed to try to make a vegetarian version of this sauce. So we tried and tested lots of recipes, but never got anywhere near the one we used to have. Usually it tasted more like a hash sauce than Bolognese.
And then, at some point, we thought we'd just forget about all the recipes and try and make the old recipe, changing minced meat for cooked green spelt.
It needed two tries and a bit of tweaking at the following tries, but by now the new vegetarian version is 95% close to the old version and tastes absolutely lovely, even if it is not 100% the same! But it can't be, since it is something different.
We've used the sauce in lasagna as well and it makes deliciously amazing lasagna!
I can only recommend this to you and I can promise that it does not taste like hash sauce, but like Bolognese! (Very important!) And it does live up to the original version!
Sauce Bolognese
Time: about an hour| for 4-6 | servings |
|---|---|
| 75 g | green spelt, cracked |
| 150 ml + | red wine |
| 50 g | butter |
| 180 g | onions, chopped |
| 200 g | carrots, chopped |
| 90 g | celery, chopped |
| 30 g | dried tomatoes, in stripes (only dried, no oil) |
| 800 g = 2 tins |
chopped tinned tomatoes |
| 200 ml | vegetable stock |
| pepper | |
| salt | |
| 120 ml | cashew milk (using about 15- 20 g cashew nuts) |
- In a small pot combine cracked green spelt and red wine. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, on low for about ten minutes until the grains are soft. Add a bit of water if the wine evaporates too quickly. Switch off.
- Melt butter in a medium to large pot, add the chopped vegetables and sauté for 5 to 10 minutes until softened.
- When I make a large batch I chop vegetables using a food processor. For small batches I chop them by hand.
- Add the green spelt and red wine mixture. Then add dried tomatoes, tinned tomatoes and vegetable stock.
- Bring to a low boil and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
- Add the cashew milk and season with salt and pepper. Add more red wine if you think it tastes too much like tomato sauce. Leave to cook for another ten minutes.
Serve over spaghetti or other pasta or use for making lasagna.
The longer you cook the sauce, the better it tends to get.
The sauce freezes well and reheating (and thus cooking again) only enhances the flavour.
