The recipe below isn't authentic by any means, but is a tasty sauce that is easily made in bulk and frozen. It is a long slow cooking recipe, so you will need a few hours to spare to make this. This will easily make 8 portions, more if you don't have large amounts of sauce on your pasta
Ingredients
2 onions, finely diced
4 sticks of celery, finely diced
3 large carrots finely diced
4 cloves garlic, finely diced
800g lean beef mince
200ml port
1/2 ring of black pudding, skinned and chopped into small chunks (optional but adds a beautiful richness)
1/4 tsp dried oregano
3 tins chopped tomatoes
Olive oil, for cooking
Method
1. In a very large lidded pan, put some olive oil and heat to a medium heat
2. Put in the onions and stir round until they are thoroughly coated in the olive oil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for approximately 30 minutes until sweet and golden, stirring occasionally to ensure they don't stick in the pan
3. Add the celery and carrots, stir well and cook for another 30 minutes until all softened and caramelised
4. Add the garlic and cook for 10-15 minutes
5. Push the vegetable mixture to one side of the pan, turn the heat up to medium, add the mince in batches and brown. Once each batch browns, mix with the vegetables and then push to the side of the pan and add the next batch until all of the beef is in
6. Add the chopped black pudding and stir well until the black pudding breaks down and coats the mixture in 'grains'
7. Add the 200ml port and heat through to remove the majority of the alcohol
8. Add the 3 tins of tomatoes and stir well. Add the oregano, reduce the heat, put the lid on and let it simmer gently, stirring occasionally. The mix may look a little dry, but as the tomatoes break down there will be alot of liquid. The black pudding will thicken the sauce.
9. Cook on a gentle simmer for 2-3 hours until the tomatoes and the beef have broken down
Serve with pasta such as spiralli, make into a lasagne or eat with garlic bread and a salad
