Description: Healthy homemade Bolognese pasta. For those who are not a big fan of vegetables, this would be one of the best dishes to eat vegetables with meat. If you have left-over red wine, This is the moment to splash it into the pasta sauce.
Serves: 4
Cooking time: 60 minutes

Ingredients

• Beef mince (5%) – 400g
• Onion – chopped in small pieces, large 2 pieces or 300g
• Carrot – chopped in small pieces, medium 2 pieces or 200g
• Celery – chopped in small pieces, 2 stalks or 100g
• Brown mushroom – chopped in small pieces, 230g
• Garlic – chopped in small pieces, 4 cloves
• Tomato tin – 2 tins
• Red wine (dry) – 300ml
• Pappardelle – 280g
• Salt – 2/3 teaspoon (You may use less salt according to your preference)
• Ground black pepper – 1/2 teaspoon
• Olive oil – 1 tablespoon
• Grated parmesan cheese – 40g
• Parsley – chopped, 1 tablespoon

Method

1. Heat the extra virgin olive oil (1 tablespoon) in a large non-stick frying pan, then add garlic, onion, celery, carrot over low heat, stirring regularly until all ingredients get soft. Put them aside.
2. Change the heat to medium, add the mushrooms to the pan. When mushrooms are almost cooked, add the minced meat and cook.
3. When the meat is almost cooked, add vegetables from no.1 and wine to the pan then cook until the ingredients absorbed the wine.
4. Add the tomato tins, salt and ground black pepper, then simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

5. When the Bolognese sauce is almost ready, cook the pasta until al dente in plenty of boiling water with salt. Once the pasta is cooked, mix it with the sauce.
To serve: Sprinkle black pepper, parmesan cheese and parsley on top.

Nutritional Values Per Serving

Kcal	Protein	Fat	Carbs	Fibre	Sugars	Salt	Saturated Fat	Iron	Vitamin E	Vitamin A (RAE)
643.9	39.6g	14.3g	72.9g	9.9g	13.7g	1.7g	5.1g	6.9mg	1.8mg	494.4μg
32.2%	79.5%	20.5%	28.1%	33.0%	15.3%	28.1%	25.67%	46.6%	60.0%	82.4%

Nutritional Tips

Bolognese takes a bit of time to cook but considering how much nutrition you can actually take, I think it is not a bad idea to spend some time. This recipe is suitable for those who do not like vegetables as the meat sauce dominates the taste of vegetables so it would be helpful to eat them, especially children. Alternatively, you can use chicken or pork minced meat. No need to use sugar as the onions can make the sauce sweet enough. You may also consider adding more onions or carrots if you like a sweeter sauce. Plants/vegetables contain different types of natural sugar and when these polysaccharides are broken down into smaller molecules by cooking, not only do they become sweeter but also softer. Because of this, this recipe is a much healthier bolognese sauce compared to a ready-made sauce. You can also freeze the sauce and use it when you do not feel like cooking.