My partner is Italian, and I’ve honed my own bolognese style sauce - or ragu - over many years, mostly by watching her mother make it back home in the Italian mountains. This soup captures all the flavour of that sauce, but takes out most of the calories as there’s very little pasta. It’s also healthy and low fat as well. I tend to make it from leftover roast beef from a Sunday joint, so it’s thrifty too. Enjoy!
UPDATE: I've added four videos which show this recipe as well now, available on my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6aNdpB0GYFlEtDpfTmNdRa1uyje6gjpv
Method
- First chop your celery, carrot and onions (the classic Italian soffritto) into 1cm cubes, and fry gently in a tablespoon or so of olive oil for about 10 minutes until they’ve just taken on a little colour.
- Next add the same amount of leftover roast beef cubes as you have vegetables, again cut into 1cm cubes.
- Add beef (or other meat) stock to cover the vegetables and meat and give a good chunky texture.
- Add a tablespoon or so of tomato puree (depending how much veg and meat you’ve used), to give colour and flavour.
- Chop up some fresh herbs and stir in. I usually use rosemary, oregano and thyme - I like it quite herby!
- Add a couple of inches of leftover parmesan crust.
- Simmer for at least 30 minutes, until the veg is tender and the parmesan has infused.
- For the last 5 minutes or so of cooking, sprinkle in a good handful or two (again depending how much of the other ingredients you’ve used) of small pasta shapes, e.g. farfalline (little bows). Check the cooking instructions for whichever you’ve used for the right timing.
- Top with a little extra grated parmesan if you wish - and enjoy!
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