French food focus-About living and cooking in rural France,recipes,lifestyle,comments

FRENCH FOOD FOCUS Latest Post Other Posts Recent Older Truffles Cassoulet Index of Recipes L inks House Sitters FiFi About me About 'My' France Comments to: yankinparisot@gmail.com Archives		Life in rural France - Food - Friends - Wine - Cheese - Comments Welcome to French Food Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food and because I live in rural France the stress will be upon French food. There are numerous posts concerning life in France and, certainly, opinions about anything that strikes my fancy. If you have some good recipes or if you want to rave about any great French restaurants this is the place to do it. I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France! Click Here to send me a comment
		This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right.
	Spag Bol Good old comforting Spaghetti Bolognese. Just about every person in the Western hemisphere cooks it and just about everybody has their own recipe. I think of it as the ultimate comfort food. What's not to like? It can be meaty or vegetarian, it can be made quickly or can be cooked for hours, days even. Its filling, but not particularly fattening. Its cheap to make although you can spend quite a lot on the ingredients if you really try (I know somebody who use ground filet steak in hers!) Almost everybody likes it. Its so universal that its hardly ethnic any longer; although I guess Italians from Bologna might beg to differ. As you may have guessed by now I'm leading up to my particular recipe for spaghetti Bolognese. I don't claim any special skill or magic touch, but like most of us I like my version better than almost anybody else's. I can claim that I originally learned to make it from various friends mother's or Grand Mother's. There was a heavy concentration of first & second generation Italian families in the California town where I grew up. We even had our own pasta factory & they made fresh ravioli once a week! Ok, here's my recipe: Ingredients: 3 carrots 2 large yellow onions 2 stalks celery 2 Lbs high quality ground beef 1/2 Lbs smoked lardons or smoked bacon cut up into strips 2 large tins of whole tomatoes 1 tube or small can of tomato puree Garlic to taste Dried oregano, rosemary, thyme and fennel seeds Salt & pepper Red wine Steps: Chop the carrots, onion, celery & garlic into a medium dice In a large deep pot fry the lardons for 3-4 minutes over high heat. Add the carrots, then after 2-3 minutes the onion, then the celery & finally the garlic. Stir well & often and continue cooking over medium heat. The vegetables should cook for at least 10 minutes. Meanwhile fry the ground beef in a large frying pan until it just begins to brown. It will require frequent stirring and will best be done in 2 or 3 batches. If in batches, pour the batches as they are done into the pot with the vegetables. When all the beef has been fried and added to the pot add the tins of tomatoes and mash them with the meat & veggies to break them up. Add the tomato puree, Add the herbs. Quantity is up to your taste, but do be somewhat careful with the fennel seeds as they can over power the other flavors. Add the salt & pepper, again to your taste. Make sure you are stirring well as you go to distribute the herbs. Finally add the red wine. A cup or two will do. Give the sauce a good stir and turn the heat down to where the uncovered pot is just gently boiling. Boil for a minimum of an hour, but up to 6 or 8 for fuller flavor. If the sauce is getting too dry add more wine. Serve over you choice of pasta shape. My favorite happens to be Fuseli. I also like plenty of cheese over my Spag Bol, but its up to you. Just make sure everything is good & hot. This recipe will feed 6-8 very hungry people or you can put it into freezer bags and freeze as it will keep this way for a long time. That's my recipe and I'm sticking to it. If you care to tempt me with your very own variation I promise to post all submissions. Should you decide to try my version let me have your opinion.