It’s been a busy month, finishing term 1 of school, as well as a busy week; I held the second Bolognese night last Saturday, and my blog has moved house. Welcome to its new home – hope you like it. I’m pretty proud of it!

Onto the second Bolognese night…Karinda was in attendance (and in case I forgot to let you know, will be at all of them as my ‘control’ for the tastings, thanks in advance Karinda!), as was Lou so an extra palate to judge the deliciousness that is Bolognese. The ladies both generously brought drinks to enjoy for the evening – Piper Heidsieck Champagne and Art of War Shiraz, both of which were a treat to enjoy.

Let me say that I had this Bolognese night all planned out weeks in advance…entrée, recipe chosen for main and dessert but all of that changed after a trip to Dymocks Sydney. I’m always browsing and looking for inspiration whether it be through the fiction, crime and romance aisles, or up to the first floor where you can find me in the cooking or interior design sections when lo and behold, the angels sang, and the spotlight shone…it was meant to be that I came across ‘The Italian Cookery Course’ by Katie Caldesi. The book was in the wrong spot completely, wouldn’t have found it if I was looking for it! I glanced through and found page after page of not only just recipes but information galore on Italian food. I just couldn’t resist buying it, particularly when I found a recipe for parmesan ice cream…can you imagine (ah, yes, yes I can, oozing over a risotto, wow!)? I’m sure you’ll see a post on it in the near future. Let me know if you would like to be a guinea pig 😉

Moving on….I think we can safely say that fate decreed my next menu: antipasti for entrée (for which I made my own oven dried tomatoes and marinated them – delish!), the traditional ragu for main, followed by baked figs with mascarpone for dessert. All recipes are from the newly purchased cookbook.

Before we get to the results, I’m sure I can hear you asking how the recipes differed? Remembering that all Bolognese sauces start from a base of soffritto, this week’s Bolognese was a measured amount of 150g of each – compared with 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks and 2 onions. Apart from that, the first had a teensy bit of cream (who knew, cream in a Bolognese?!), and the second had a substantial amount of milk. The first had two different types of meat – beef and pork – whereas this one had only beef mince, but added pancetta and chicken livers. It was also tomato paste versus a can of whole Italian tomatoes.  This one however did not have beef stock.

Again, as Lou was the newcomer, I asked her for her expectations of what a Bolognese meant to her; Lou was expecting something ‘meaty, beef, with enough sauce to cover the pasta’. Similar to Karinda, Lou was also expecting veggies as her Mum used to add when she was a child. Did we meet Lou’s expectations?  Read on…

And so, to the results: apart from the obvious, even saying so myself, that the Bolognese was so tasty, and maintained a very meaty flavour it was almost neck in neck with the first Bolognese…the difference in taste was actually very subtle. Karinda rated it an overall score of 11.75 out of 15 (compared with 12 for the first) and Lou gave a total of 12 – an average of 11.875, ha!

Comments:

‘Liked that I could see tomato in it, looked rich. Sweeter flavour than the last one; I liked the different textures of the meats’. Karinda

‘Not as saucy as I expected. Lots of meat, sweet, good ratio of pasta and meat. Very pleased and would ask for the recipe’. Lou

Overall, I do believe it was a success however, there needs to be a winner and whilst only by the smallest of margins, Not Quite Nigella’s recipe is currently in the lead.

So, I bid you Buona Notte, until the next Bolognese night (or before, you just never know!) xx

P.S. Can you see any differences between the sauces in the images?!