It’s been a while between bowls (though not between drinks!) – almost a year.  I’m not sure how that happened as apart from the lentil veg Bolognese, I’ve not made a Bolognese in that time.  CRAZY.  And whilst I was planning on making a Bolognese this long weekend to make up for the lack, I hadn’t planned on starting Bolognese nights up again.  I was going to make the winning recipe, but then I came across the Italian cooking bible, The Silver Spoon, and realised I’d not once consulted it for a Bolognese recipe (I think I’ve cooked one recipe from it – I’ve had it since 2005 or thereabouts!) and found two I could make.  And I’ve also bought another cookbook (well, many cookbooks generally, obsessed) but this another Italian cookbook that has another Bolognese recipe in it, and I’d had another Gino D’Campo Bolognese recipe up my sleeve that I’d not made…so here we are.  Four more Bolognese nights to go.  Excited?!

It was quite last minute, but the first of which was last night – a Sunday night, on a long weekend, perfect!  Whilst waiting to hear if Karinda (who if you recall, is my ‘control’ for the results, and has been at every Bolognese night, except for one) could actually make it, I planned the menu.  Luckily Karinda could make it, yay.  Karinda brought a beautiful shiraz to drink with the Bolognese, a Warrenmang NV Estate Shiraz from the Pyrenees in Victoria.  Went beautifully with the pasta I must say, and with the dessert too.  And after dessert.  I still have some left.  Lucky me!  With nibbles and the entrée, we of course had champagne.  Do I ever entertain and not have champagne?  Ah, no, well, rarely.  I was going to have one of my usual go to’s, the Piper Heidsieck, but came across Champagne de Saint Gall, so thought we’d try that.  And I have to say, I’m rather pleased I bought it to try, it’s a beautiful champagne.  Ok, here’s the menu…

Nibbles: You all would have seen my little ladybird caprese canapes which I love, and I’ve since come across the cutest little penguins.  So had to make those.   And I’d recently torn out a recipe for a pea hummus.  I could just envision how it would all look, fresh and bright and oh so cute with the penguins. And all in all, really easy and not time consuming to make.  Nibbles, done.  And tasty.  And healthy. 

Entrée: We all know I’m obsessed with burrata, that delightfully creamy, oozy cheese, and beetroot too.  So I searched my Pinterest pins, and found this delightful Burrata and Beetroot dish.  I made the basil oil.  Who knew it would be so tasty?  And side benefit, I now have a jar of basil with some, that I just need to add some nuts and parmesan too and boom, tasty homemade pesto.  How pretty does the plate look?  Just like a garden on a plate.  And so delicious too.  The blend of flavours was beautiful, finished with a drizzle of balsamic cream (and a few more drizzles of the basil oil, couldn’t resist!).

Main: We’ll come back to that shortly.  Promise.

Dessert: Something else I’ve been wanting to make is a chia pudding. Chia is meant to be really good for you.  Add it to make what normally would be quite indulgent, and hopefully it’s a mouth watering dessert.  Add chocolate, make it even more yum.  So I found a couple of recipes, and as I was recently the lucky recipient of a large pot of honey made my a friend’s bees (I’ve never had homemade honey before, delightful), I chose the recipe with honey.  The pudding was yum, though not as firm as I was expecting.  And next time, probably won’t add cinnamon.  Karinda thought so, and I agreed. 

Now, for the part you’ve all been waiting so patiently for…the Bolognese!  I’d previously made a Gino D’Campo meat sauce (Bolognese Night # 3), but in a new cookbook I’d received last Christmas, Gino’s Italian Escape A Taste of The Sun, I came across a Bolognese recipe.  I chose this one because of course it’s a classic Bolognese recipe,  but differed slightly.  Like all Bolognese sauces, it started with the soffritto base (onion, carrot, celery).  Like many recipes, it contained two meats, in this instance, beef and pork, contained wine and milk, though a very small quantity (50mls of each), then had tomato paste and passata (fairly large quantity compared to others and finally chicken stock (usually beef).  It didn’t contain pancetta or other kind of salumi meat as they usually do, nor livers for that richness of flavour, or any herbs either.

As it slowly cooked for three or so hours, the house filled with a delicious smell.  It was divine.  I personally think it was a very good, solid Bolognese – solid in that it was tasty, just simple in flavour.  Was it a winner?  No.  Karinda felt the same, stating:

“Light coloured sauce, not as deep a red as others however stuck to the pasta well.  Tasty, not too strong a flavour.  Meaty with carrot, not overly sauce, and not strong on the herb front.  Overall, very enjoyable and easy to eat, subtle flavours went well with the parmesan.”

Karinda gave it an overall rating of 10.5.  Which coincidentally puts it on par with the first Gino sauce that I made.  Putting both Gino sauces at the bottom of the ranking.  Sorry Gino.  Both were yummy sauces, just a bit basic in flavour when compared to the others.  I’m still looking forward to the leftovers, let me tell you!

Will any recipe be able to knock Light of Lucia’s Bolognese off the top?  It’ll take something pretty amazing to do so me thinks.

So, until the next Bolognese night…

Buon Appettito xx