Ultimate Veggie Bolognese
I love making a batch of this veggie bolognese recipe to see me through the week. It is packed with so much rich umami flavour you will be forgiven for thinking there is meat in the recipe. The key is to use super savoury ingredients which really pack a punch - anchovies (leave out if wanting to make fully veggie), marmite, dried porcini mushrooms, oyster sauce, a little dark chocolate, red wine and a parmesan rind all help to make sure this isn’t a bland vegetarian meal, but one which meat eaters will also love. This dish tastes even better the next day so if you can, make it ahead for a maximum flavour punch. Served on a Sunday with a glass of red wine, this is comfort food heaven.
Serves 4
Add 30g dried porcini mushrooms to a jug and cover with boiling water. Leave to stand.
Preheat the oven to 130C fan/150C. Finely dice an onion, couple of large carrots and a couple of celery sticks and add to a large saucepan or casserole dish with 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt. Fry over a medium heat for at least 10 minutes until soft and golden. You want them to soften but not colour – you can put a lid on the pan to help keep the moisture in and steam the vegetables at the same time.
Once the vegetables are soft, put 500g chestnut mushrooms into a food processor and blitz until finely chopped. Add these to the pan and turn up the heat, stirring every now and then.
Drain the dried mushrooms, reserving their liquid for later, and add to the processor with 1 heaped tbsp tomato puree, 3 garlic cloves, the leaves from three stripped stalks of rosemary and 3 anchovies. Blitz until you have a puree then add to the pan along with a couple of bay leaves and a few sprigs of thyme. Stir for 3-4 minutes.
Add 300ml red wine and turn up the heat. Reduce the liquid until almost none remains before adding a drained can of lentils, a can of plum tomatoes and a beef stock cube. Stir well, breaking up the tomatoes slightly then add a parmesan rind, 1 tbsp marmite and 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce to the sauce. Top up the reserved liquid from the mushrooms until you have 500ml, then add this to the pan along with a generous grind of black pepper. Bring to the boil then put lid on the pan and slow cook in the oven for two hours, removing the lid for the final half hour to reduce the ragu slightly. Alternatively, you can cook in a slow cooker for the same amount of time. The longer you can slow cook the ragu, the better.
Add a couple of squares of 70% dark chocolate and taste. Correct the seasoning with some soy, oyster sauce or more marmite if needed, or add a touch of sugar if it needs some sweetness. Stir through cooked pasta of your choice and a couple of large handfuls of roughly chopped parsley. Serve in bowls with plenty more grated parmesan. Enjoy.