Low Fat Bolognese

My love for pasta continues with this low fat Bolognese recipe. With the Cork City Marathon coming up this weekend, I really am upping the carbs, not that I’m doing a full marathon, just a 5.2 mile leg, you’d swear I was running the full marathon the way I’ve been babbling on about it for months training. Anywho, as I said, this week it’s all about the carbs, but I want to be smart about it and keep the meals tasty and low in fat. What better way to combine the need for carbs and lean protein than to have pasta bolognese using turkey mince. I actually use this basic recipe for turkey mince for my Bolognese sauce and it can be adapted to suit after that.You can use it in a pasta bake, just have regular Bolognese with spaghetti, or for those spuds lovers out there, make a shepherds’ pie with an Italian twist…….or you can also leave out the thyme and balsamic vinegar and add ground cumin, coriander , brown sugar and kidney beans at the end to make a low fat chilli con carne served with rice or potato wedges……..See the possibilities know no bounds.  Anyways, on with the show!!

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

• Turkey mince
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• 1 diced onion
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and diced
• 2 stalks of chopped celery
• 3 diced carrots
• 7-8 sliced mushrooms
• 1 tbsp of tomato puree
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp Worchester sauce
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves
• Pasta of your choice
• Shredded basil leaves

Method

1. In a large frying pan/wok add the oil and fry the mince breaking it up as you fry.
2. When the mince is nicely browned, transfer to a plate and keep warm
3. Add the garlic, onions, chilli, celery and carrots and thyme leaves to the pan along with a pinch of salt to stop them colouring, sauté for 5 minutes
4. Add the mince back to the pan and add the tomato puree, combining everything well
5. Then add the tinned tomatoes, and fill the empty can 1/3 with water and add that as well. Add the sugar also to take the acidity out of the tomatoes.
6. Add the balsamic and Worchester sauce, bring to the boil then turn down the heat and simmer for an hour if you have the time for the mince to tenderise and absorb the flavours.
7. Add some shredded basil and the salt and pepper.

8. At this point, I made a pasta bake for myself. So I cooked 60g of pasta, drained it and added it to an oven proof dish with 1/3 of the Bolognese mixture and I put it in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 15-20 for the top to brown. Something happens when pasta is baked. It’s a deeper flavour, which I love. Cheese could have been added, but this is a low fat recipe. Add chopped basil at the end.

9. For the rest of the Bolognese, when Alan got home from work, I just heated the mince up in the pan and cooked some fresh tagiatelli, drained it and topped with the mince, for some Tag. Bol.