Greetings Gastronauts! This is Keef Cooks, I'm Keef and today I'm going to show you something
that has become a modern British classic, but we stole it from the Italians.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you the Primadonna of Pastas, the Richest of Ragus, the Sloppiest of Sauces
Spag Bol
[ MUSIC ]
So before I start, I want to give a shoutout to Hazel B, who's been following my channel
for quite a while, and always loves anything I do. That's great, I like that.
So, Hazel, this is for you!
So Spag Bol, I won't call it Spaghetti Bolognese because that would be a total insult to Italian
cuisine because the original Bolonese Sauce is nothing like what we do. I might do an
authentic version of that one time, but for now, this is something that we stole from
the Italians, we completely ignored everything that was good about it, and we put our own
good things in. And it's easy to make and delicious, lovely comfort food. So, let's do it!
Ingredients for the sauce, I've got 250 grams of minced beef. A can of Italian chopped tomatoes,
that's 400 grams, and some passata, that'll be about 200 grams in there, that's half full.
Half a litre of chicken or beef stock, a teaspoon of ground black pepper, a medium onion or
some little 'uns. A good handful of fresh basil or one or two teaspoons of dried basil,
and some garlic cloves. And then for the spaghetti, I've got 150 grams of spaghetti, that's 75
grams per person, and I'll have a grating of this cheese. The cheese if you were trying
to be authentically Italian would be Parmesan, of course, but Grana Padano is a perfectly
acceptable substitute and if you want to be a Brit about it you'll obviously use Cheddar.
Oh, and I sometimes use one or two rashers of smoky bacon chopped fine. But I haven't
got any, so I'm not. So I'm just prepping the garlic, I've chopped the ends off and
I'm peeling the skin off, and I'll just crush them in the crushing machine.
Now to prep the onions, usual drill, top and tail them, chop them in half, rip the skin
off, slice them thinly and chop, chop, chop.
I've got a good slug of oil heating in the pan, this is rapeseed oil, you could use olive
oil of course, or even your bog-standard sunflower oil. So I just want to soften these onions
first. Now we'll pop the garlic in and let that cook a little bit. Now the onions are
softening up so we'll put the meat in. And just separate that out so all the strands
get browned - actually they get greyed, but stop them being pink. Now we'll add the stock,
and the tomatoes, and the passata. I think I'm probably pronouncing that like it was
Spanish, but it's Italian, so PASSATA!
Now I'm going to add the basil. Experts say don't cut it, tear it. I don't know what difference
it makes, but I always do what I'm told, don't I. Finally, a good old shake of ground black
pepper. And we'll just let this simmer for about an hour, and see how we're getting on.
Okay, an hour later this is looking pretty fabulous. I will have a taste. It's okay,
maybe needs a bit of salt. I should have mentioned, because this is a completely made-up Brit
recipe that really isn't a recipe. A lot of people would put green pepper or mushrooms
or all manner of strange things in their spag bog, and that's fine by me. I wouldn't eat
it, but this is how I do it.
Now, I'm going to leave this til tomorrow, because the flavours will sort of intensify
and it'll be, it's fab now, you could eat it now, but tomorrow it'll be ultra-fab and
ooh.
[ STRANGULATED COCK CROWING ]
Okay, it's the next day, and I've got a big pan full of boiling salted water. It's got
to be what we call a rolling boil, okay, lots and lots of bubbles on the top. Not a simmer.
You don't put your pasta in until it's reached that point. So it has, so I'll put the spaghetti
in. Press it down until it's all submerged. And it'll tell you the cooking time on the
packet. This says 9 to 11 minutes, so I'll give it 9 'cos what we want is al dente pasta, not al mushy.
And I've got some of the sauce in a smaller pan, not all of it, 'cos I'm going to use
some of it to make that other great British classic, Chilli Con Carny. So the timer's
just gone off, and I'm going to drain the spaghetti.
I'm just going to melt a knob of butter in a pan and then toss the spaghetti in. Give it
a quick whizz round, and that's ready to serve. I do this because I like butter [ LAUGHS ], but
also it makes the pasta kind of silkier, more luxurious. S'lovely.
So, to serve it, just plop some spaghetti on the plate - try to get it on the plate,
and then pour some of the sauce on top, sprinkle it with cheese, and a couple of little basil
leaves just to make it look gorgeous. There ya go - Spag Bol! Mmmm. Now I'm going to taste it.
Ooh, ready for this. I waited a day for it, y'know. You have to do that twizzly thing
with the fork and, just a general tip, don't wear a white shirt while you do this, or if
you do, also wear a big apron. What can I say? That's perfect. Spag Bol.
And that's that, I hope you enjoyed it. Now please share it with all your friends on social
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forget the amazing website that has all the details of all the recipes. And thank you
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