Dani Valent’s Spaghetti Bolognaise

This is the first recipe I’ve attempted from Dani Valent’s Thermomix cookbook, In The Mix. Now, everyone that cooks has their own version of a bolognaise sauce that they love, and find it hard to deviate from their own recipe. Same here. But I thought since I was laughing in the face of my stove-made bolognaise by giving it a crack in the TMX, I might as well go nuts with a new recipe.

Plus, the bolognaise was one of the very few recipes in the cookbook that actually looked achievable.

Two things from my perspective. Firstly, I was lazy and used pre-minced meat, which resulted in a very fine sauce. Which may be what you like, but I definitely like a bit of chunkiness in my bolognaise so I’ll definitely mince my meat in the TMX next time. Secondly, while I didn’t find the addition of orange rind and star anise bad, some flavour combinations just WOW you like bacon, chocolate and maple syrup. Or rock lobster and lychee. Or watermelon, fetta and mint.) The flavour these two ingredients added to the sauce was more “Hmm. okay. I see where this is going. I guess.”

To cut my rambling short, in future for me, no orange rind. no star anise. no pre-minced meat. BUT, you should give the orange and star anise combo a shot, because you might end up loving this bolognaise more than your own!

Ingredients

300g rump steak, fat trimmed

200g pork fillet, fat trimmed

3 garlic cloves, peeled (you will see very clearly later that I didn’t stick to 3.)

1 onion, peeled and halved

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 3 pieces

1 zucchini, cut into 3 pieces

50g olive oil

2 star anise

Rind of 1/2 an orange, finely grated (I did this first in the TMX, then added everything in as per the steps below)

S&P to taste

100g red wine

100g tomato paste

Approximately 650g tomato passata

100g milk

Method

• Roughly cut the rump steak and pork fillet into 2cm cubes and freeze for 45 minutes.
• Put 250g of meat into the TMX bowl and mince for 2 seconds/speed 7. Set aside and repeat with the second batch. (I bought 500g of pork and veal mince so skipped this step.)
• While this isn’t actually part of the steps in the book, probably because Dani Valent is a lot more organise than I’ll ever be, I started off by popping the orange rind into the TMX and grating it for about 7 seconds/speed 7. Perhaps this resulted in a stronger than normal orange flavour? Not sure. I left the rind in the bowl and went on to the next step.

• Place the garlic, onion, carrot, celery and zucchini in the TMX bowl and chop for 3 seconds/speed 7. Scrape down and chop for another second if any large chunks remain. Add the olive oil, star anise and orange rind, as well as s&p to taste. Cook for 5 minutes/Varoma/speed 1.
• Add the minced meat and cook for a further 5 minutes/100 degrees/Reverse/speed 1/MC off. Use the spatula to get it moving, so that the meat browns evenly.
• Add the wine and cook for 5 minutes/100 degrees/Reverse/speed 1, then add the tomato paste and passata. Make sure the contents don’t surpass the 2L mark n the bowl.
• Cook for 20 minutes/100 degrees/Reverse/speed 1. I leave the MC tilted against the hole to avoid too much bubbling.
• Add milk and cook for 10 minutes/100 degrees/Reverse/speed 1. 
• Serve with pasta and shaved parmesan. Compare to own bolognaise recipe. Done.