I'M SO TIRED I SPENT most of the day sleeping... It took some something-or-other to get out of bed and come here; today I am too blackpeppery and I didn't feel like it. Not into gurging out selfpitying whingeings yet... I wanted not to use anything and did. The lump of powdery dried mud knocked me out... "helped me catch up on lost sleep"... I have not slept properly for days. Sleeping somehow sometimes feels too much like giving up...
The BBC have put on a new version of the Diary of Anne Frank. Never having read the original I can't say how much it compares. What they have done is remake it in the image of the present time focusing on arguments and her burgeoning romance with the Jewish neighbours' son. They're all in hiding together. Perched in rooms off a back staircase, which is hidden behind a bookcase, upstairs from a shop. Final episode is tomorrow and I don't know how much I can handle watching The End, when all these characters in such sharp focus... well: knowing what happens to them.
When EastEnders came on afterwards it seemed so trivial I went out of the room and did cooking. I'm trying to learn to make Italian bolognaise sauce, y'know the type manufactured industrially by Dolmio-Buitoni-Ragu, from scratch. I heard you're supposed to take tinned tomatoes, chop them if they're not already chopped, and boil them over a low heat frequently stirring for a couple of hours or so... Am I right? You just cannot replicate the taste of these industrial sauces with tomatoes or puree just as they come. I believe they're massively boiled down and thus concentrated up. I only had one tin and the patience of half an hour, but I have to say in that time I did appear to be getting somewhere... IF ANYONE KNOWS THE RECIPE PLEASE HELP ME OUT!PS DELIA SMITH says oven-cook for 3 hours in an open casserole dish... Bacon-schmacon: I'm not adding swineflesh to mine though!
PPS DELIA'S first "media" gig (though she was already food writer at the Daily Mail) was creating that fabulously fancy chinzy iced cake for the Rolling Stones' 1969Let It Bleed LP...
Hi, Gleds. I can never bear to watch the end of any version of "Anne Frank" so I know what you mean.
ReplyDeleteFor a bolognese sauce, you should put some meat - minced beef is the usual - then, when you've browned it you can add some onion, chopped carrots, garlic if you like and chopped tomatoes or tomato purée. Add seasoning and you do need to cook and stir occasionally for about 3 hours. I put chopped pancetta in with the meat [ready-chopped in plastic containers in Tesco or Sains] but you don't have to.
I make spaghetti sauce from scratch ALWAYS. My family would revolt if I didn't. You can put ground beef in it if you want - brown that first with garlic, onions and peppers if you like them - add mushrooms towards when the meat and veggies are just about done if you want to. Dump in a large tin (796 ml or 28 oz) of diced tomatoes or dice up the whole ones plus 1 tin of tomato paste if you have such stuff in tins there. The tins here are maybe 3 or 4 oz. The tomato paste thickens it up for you so all you really have to do is simmer it until you can't stand waiting any more. - Oh yeah - add basil too and salt and pepper.
ReplyDeleteForgot: chuck in a glass of red wine, too!
ReplyDeletethanks folks!
ReplyDeleteYep, the other two have got it covered for you, Gleds. Spag Bol is very easy and a lovely meal...very tasty. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteSurely I can do a vegetarian bolognaise/rattattouille?... which is what I originally wanted to dole over my pasta with luvverly grated parmesan..
ReplyDelete;->...