The secret of a perfect Spag Bol

[everso]

The secret of a perfect Spaghetti Bolognaise - don't let a Brit cook it

What a bloody cheek! I don't care how the Italians cook Spag Bol. If I want to cook it a certain way, I will!

Mind you I might give his recipe a try.

[riotgrrl]

Spag Bol is Spag Bol. Fry the onions, garlic, meat, add the tins of tom and the tom puree plus whatever else.

This pretentious git would have us believe that some kind of eye-tie vegetable stew is superior to common or garden spag bol.

I blame immigration and Muslims.

[Weyland]

Jan 19, 2010 16:16:20 GMT @riotgrrl said:

Spag Bol is Spag Bol. Fry the onions, garlic, meat, add the tins of tom and the tom puree plus whatever else.

This pretentious git would have us believe that some kind of eye-tie vegetable stew is superior to common or garden spag bol.

I blame immigration and Muslims.

I blame the Scots and emigration. As soon as they found out about real food, they wanted some. Major mistake, that. (Though I'm big enough to admit that actually it's our fault for letting them out.)

Curious Fact Department: The worst SpaBol I ever had by a country mile was in Clervaux, Luxembourg. Still gives my daughter nightmares (she eats little else but pasta dishes, shredded wheat, coffee, and liquorice). The chef was from Islay.

[housesparrow]

Bacon. That's the secret of a perfect spag bol: one or two rashers is enough, preferably streaky

[everso]

Jan 19, 2010 17:52:25 GMT housesparrow said:

Bacon. That's the secret of a perfect spag bol: one or two rashers is enough, preferably streaky

Ain't it the truth!

If I want to put garlic and British bacon in my spag bol I jolly well will.

[Deleted]

i like spaghetti bolognaise. ~yum~
not sure who this SpagBol is thou.. pressumably some dumpy moustachioud scottish spinster who likes to do singing?

[Deleted]

inciDENTALLY.i never used to like spaghetti bolognaise.. primarily cos my mums spaghetti bolognaise tasted like cat vomit. so everytime she made it i would have somethink different instead. twas only as an adult when i was treated to spaghetti bolognaise by someone who knew how to make it that i realised i DID like spaghetti bolognaise, just not my mums version of it with the cat sick.

[everso]

You being the expert on the taste of cat sick then.

[Deleted]

i used to be a cat.

[stephan]

A perfect ragu from Bolagna???-I could mention stuff.


but face it--a decent spag bol is an an excuse to get a bonk.

[aubrey]

The idea from some chefs - mainly italian - that there is only one way of making a dish is bizarre. It's always, my way is right, and everyone else's is wrong. So, they don't ever want anyone to come up with something new?

[everso]

Jan 21, 2010 10:16:01 GMT aubrey said:

The idea from some chefs - mainly italian - that there is only one way of making a dish is bizarre. It's always, my way is right, and everyone else's is wrong. So, they don't ever want anyone to come up with something new?

Precisely. There's too much snobbery around food. The main thing is that the person who makes it enjoys it (and possibly those he makes it for as well)

[artistlily]

I know a bloke who makes curry like this:

take cheap nasty offcuts of stringy fatty beef
bung in pan with chopped carrots and onion
tip in whole tub of hottest "homebrand" curry powder
stir
boil the tits off it for two hours
eat.


Epilogue: eat leftovers, cold, for breakfast, straight from saucepan.

[aubrey]

One of the joys of life is the remains of last night's takeaway, heated in the microwave. It's what microwaves were invented for, and it makes the food taste much better than it did the night before.

[jean]

Jan 21, 2010 10:16:01 GMT aubrey said:

The idea from some chefs - mainly italian - that there is only one way of making a dish is bizarre.

That really isn't true of Italians particularly, aubrey - if you go to any small Italian town you'll find all the restaurants have their own take on the local speciality.

[everso]

This is what makes the article so daft in the first place. Restaurants in Italy all have their own recipes for their various dishes (unlike Indian restaurants over here - at least the ones in my area - who, I'm convinced go to some big curry warehouse where it's all stored in big vats, and buy it. It always seems to taste the same wherever I go)

[aubrey]

Jan 30, 2010 10:34:21 GMT jean said:

Jan 21, 2010 10:16:01 GMT aubrey said:

The idea from some chefs - mainly italian - that there is only one way of making a dish is bizarre.

That really isn't true of Italians particularly, aubrey - if you go to any small Italian town you'll find all the restaurants have their own take on the local speciality.

I would assume they would. It's just that the chefs who come out with that - only one way - nonsense, do seem to be Italian, usually. They must annoy other Italian chefs as much as anyone else.

[jean]

Even Antonio Carluccio in the OP doesn't say that, though. What he does say is that English spag bol (horrible name) isn't very like any[ Italian version.

He also mentions the horrible English habit of slopping a dollop of too-liquid sauce on top of the pasta, so that it splashes all over the place when you try to eat it.

All of which seems like fair comment to me.

[Patrick]

I note the comment on the bottom of the article from the one with Italian relations and would say she/he was right. A bolognese is probably a very personal thing, and probably varies accross the world and from house to house in Italy.

Saying that though - I had bolognese at a restaurant once and told them straight that I thought it must have come out of a tin.

The secret is in the bubbling time. A bolognese is rather like porridge, where you get that crucial point where the oats have bowed to the milk and start soaking it up so that it's no longer milk and flakes but a thoroughly bonded breakfast bowl of beauty.

So it is with bolognese - it needs a minimum of twenty minutes on the hob to let all the flavours bind together.

[jean]

Bolognese ragu was one of those topics that (in a sort of zeitgeist thing) crop up everywhere at the same time.

Bets posted Valentina Harris's recipe here:

thesequal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sillystuff&action=display&thread=247

and in an article I found when I was clearing out my archives I found this:

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/feb/09/asylum

But if there is going to be a test for British citizenship, it should at least reflect the reality of the British character. For a start, in the queue for applications, anyone seen twitching nervously in case that man hovering near the front was thinking of pushing in, would get extra "Britishness" points straight away... Then comes the tough written test, (and anyone who completes this without a single grammatical error or spelling mistake will be told to go straight back to Holland).

Question 1 - please list the following events in order of historical importance: a) the French revolution; b) the end of the cold war; c) Brotherhood of Man's 1976 Eurovision triumph with Save Your Kisses For Me.

Question 2 - what is the traditional accompaniment to spaghetti bolognaise? a) a light sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese; or b) a large portion of chips and two slices of white bread...