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I kinda ruined my favorite recipe by perfecting it. (piefed.social)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social to c/casualconversation@piefed.social

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Until recently, I really didn’t know how to cook properly.

One of the things I used to make often was spaghetti bolognese. It was high in protein, fit my diet well, it was reasonably healthy, and so I made it about twice a week. The recipe was very simple: mince, onions, spaghetti, and a bottle of pasta sauce from the store.

Over time I started experimenting. I tried different recipes, added more ingredients, cooked parts separately, and let the sauce simmer longer. Bit by bit it evolved.

Now I make the sauce from scratch, cook the mince in a separate pan, add finely diced carrots and a do a bunch of extra steps I never used to, as well as letting everything simmer for a two hours.

The result is honestly fucking delicious and better than any spaghetti bolognese I've had in restaurants.

The problem is that it went from being my easy go-to meal to something that actually takes effort. I used to make it multiple times a week, but now I barely do.

And the worst part is I can’t go back to the old version anymore, because it just tastes disappointing.

I just wanted to rant, I'm frustrated because I want the dish more, but don't want all of the added effort.

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[–] tomiant@piefed.social 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

By far my favorite dish in the world, and it's fucking expensive and takes TIME.

Use only fresh tomatoes, the best you can find, at least 1,5-2 kg, the more the better. Halve them, put in a whachu call, glass oven pan, pour over some olive oil and salt and maybe a clove of garlic stuck inside one of the tomatoes (so it don't burn), and into the oven at around 175-180 degrees C. Point is you want to lightly roast the skin, so it caramelizes. Once it does you can lower the temperature to 125 or lower, even 100 or 80, and it can simmer and stew forever, the longer the better. Just keep reducing until it's thick. If it gets too thick just add water or wine.

Tomatoes need LONG TIME to really release flavor. Thats why the sauce always tastes better the next day. This is for the tomatoes only, not even talking the rest of the sauce but that's the foundation for sure. White or red wine helps a lot. Onions are non negotiable, but there's a point of dininishing returns of adding ingredients and spices.

One secret trick also is to mix- hear me out, filet of sardine, I don't know what they're called, it's like these very salty very thin fish filets that come in a jar and usually sunflower oil.

They release a ton of umami and melt into the sauce without a trace, and it doesn't taste like fish at all.

There's a bunch of other things obv but those are the spechal tacticks for the connoisseurs already in here.