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This (experimental) recipe consists of 2 independent parts:

• Making the bolognese sauce
• Cooking the spaghetti

Equipment

• 1 saucepan
• 1 pasta pot
• 1 colander

Ingredients

• 120g spaghetti
• 100g minced meat
• Tomato puree
• 2 cloves garlic
• thumb-ful of ginger
• 1 large onion / 2-3 small onions
• Carrots
• Celery (optional)
• Cooking oil (olive oil works best apparently)
• Cooking sake
• Any stock (chicken, fish) or bonito dashi

[!note] The ratio of onions : carrots : celery should be around 2 : 1 : 1. The total mass of the soffritto should be weigh the same as the meat

Spaghetti

1. Get a pot of water to a rolling boil
2. Drop the spaghetti inside and boil for approximately 5 minutes until the center of a strand is no longer rigid.
3. Remove the spaghetti from the pot and blanch inside a colander.
4. Save the pasta water for later the sauce (~100ml)

Bolognese sauce

1. Create some stock and set aside

2. Mince the garlic and ginger and set aside

3. Dice the carrots, onions and celery into roughly the same size

4. In the frying pan, fry the mince with some oil, and brown some of the meat

5. Ensure that the pan is not overcrowded. Fry in batches if necessary

6. Saute the aromatics along with a little cooked mince

7. Deglaze/intensify flavours with cooking sake or wine

8. Once the onions are translucent, proceed to the next step

9. Add the tomato puree, stock and pasta water into a large pot. A rice cooker is ideal.

10. Simmer until desired sauce consistency is reached. A longer simmer time yields better results. Simmer with a lid covered to extend cooking time. If using the rice cooker, set to cook until the desired consistency is reached.

    [!note] The amount of pasta water added will determine how long it takes for the sauce to reduce. Add less/more pasta water if you want the sauce to reduce more quickly.

    Leftover pasta water can be used to wet the sauce prior to serving.

Mixing it together

1. When the sauce is reduced sufficiently, go to the next step
2. 4. Add some mirin (10ml)
3. Add all the pasta inside the saucepan
4. Add a small amount (10ml) of pasta water, if the sauce has been reduced too much
5. Mix the pasta into the sauce evenly. Make sure that all the pasta is coated in sauce
6. You may need to remove the saucepan from heat in order to prevent burning
7. Serve in saucepan, or plate idk

Alternative

Instead of mixing fully cooked pasta inside, add partially cooked pasta to the sauce.

More starch will be introduced into the sauce, so it will naturally become more sticky.

1. Do not reduce the sauce completely
2. Cook the pasta until it is half done - it can bend, but holds some shape
3. Add the pasta to the sauce and simmer until done
4. Continue on from [[#Mixing it together | the last section]]

Alternative #2

Instead of reducing the sauce on the stove, use a rice cooker's cook setting. The process is pretty much hands-free. You can let the cooker reduce the sauce automatically.

1. After frying the mince meat, transfer the fried contents to a rice cooker
2. Add the same items (tomato puree, pasta water, stock cube) to the pot
3. Set the rice cooker to 'cook'
4. If the rice cooker has a steam vent, open it fully
5. Open and check the rice cooker periodically, to make sure that the sauce does not reduce too much
6. Continue on from [[#Mixing it together | the last section]]

Remarks

• First iteration w/ 150g mince + 120g pasta - ratio seems ok but sauce was not enough
• Second iteration w/ 150g mince + 140g pasta (taken out of water when it is almost cooked) with a greater proportion of tomato puree + most of the stock + additional pasta water - sauce clumps together and taste seems good.
• Rice cooker iteration w/ 100g mince + 120g pasta + mirin in the sauce before serving - ver gooch
• Rice cooker iteration w/ 200g mince + 300g pasta + mirin in the sauce + slow cooking of veggies and mince - also ver gooch

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