Thursday, December 28, 2006

Spaghetti Bolognaise (the short cut way)


My hubby loves spaghetti. So does Inez (but she only eats it with plain sauce). Mika has his moods. He prefers mac and cheese.

If I make my own sauce, it's usually a lot and I could also make lasagna with the leftover sauce.

This recipe is for when I want to whip up a meal in a short time. I usually stock my kitchen with a few tins of spaghetti sauce at a time. In Kuantan, the place to get Prego very cheap is at Eng Hong. A tin costs about RM3.90. Standard retail price is RM4.30. One tin of sauce is enough for 2-4 adults depending on their appetite and hunger level.

First of all in a pot of hot water, boil about half of the 250gm packet of spaghetti. That should be enough for 2-4 ppl. Inez likes to help me, so I let her break the spaghetti in half before throwing it into the pot. Ideally, one should put some salt and pour some olive oil into the hot water, but it's okay if you don't do that. FYI, I like to buy the really thin spaghetti, the same way I like to buy the tiniest sized macaroni. They cook faster. When it's boiled, you can either wash it or not. Jamie Oliver doesn't. His spaghetti goes directly to the plate.

In the meantime, prepare the stuff for the Bolognaise sauce.

Ingredients
1 tin of Prego Spaghetti sauce (the orange tin, with basil)
1 big onion, diced finely
1 big tomato, diced finely
Mushrooms (sometimes I even use oyster mushrooms) finely or roughly diced (My hubby isn't allergic to mushrooms but if he can see it, he sets the mushroom aside)
Green pepper, diced finely (optional)
1 - 2 pips garlic, crushed
Oregano (I usually get oregano from the bakery for under RM3)
Minced meat or chicken
Kurma powder

In your pot, heat some olive oil, throw in the garlic and some oregano (abt 1 dsp) until you can smell the delicious aroma of garlic and oregano. Then put in the diced onions. Stir until the onions go soft, then put in the mushrooms, until they too go soft. Then you throw in the green pepper if you like and tomatoes. Next, put in the meat abt 3 handfuls. Pour some kurma powder over it and stir until meat is cooked. Lastly stir in the Prego sauce and wait for the sauce to boil. Then it's ready. Serve with grated parmesan or grated cheddar cheese and garnish with parsley. Mmmmmm, I like a lot of parsley on my spaghetti.

4 comments:

The Hand That Holds The Quill... said...

Mmmm, you put kurma powder. Will definitely try this out when I next make spaghetti. :)

Btw when you said 'really thin spaghetti' you meant Angel's Hair ker?

jujuqtpie said...

I can't remember the names but yeah, I guess it could be. The other day, Malaysian Women's Weekly mag had an article which featured all the different types of pasta, I should've paid more attention to it.

Mae said...

Can't help but noticed that your husband doesn't like mushroom, just like my husband, is it a man thing?

jujuqtpie said...

I dunno if it's a man thing but when i chop up those mushrooms, no complaints from him, just make sure they're small enough so he can't isolate them from the other stuff. Hahaha.