Serves 4
Ingredients:1. 500g minced beef
2. 500 g cherry tomatoes diced
3. 2 cloves garlic minced
4. 2 large onions diced
3. 2 cloves garlic minced
4. 2 large onions diced
5. 2 TBS olive oil
6. 2 TBS canola cooking oil or butter or a mixture of both
7. 2 TBS dried oregano, dried thyme, dried basil leaves and/or a mixture of all
7. 2 TBS dried oregano, dried thyme, dried basil leaves and/or a mixture of all
8. 2 TBS paprika (optional)
9. 1/2 lemon juiced
10. 100ml red wine
11. A handful of basil leaves
12. A few stalks of thyme (optional)
13. Salt & pepper to taste
14. 1 dried date pitted
15. 4 Servings of pasta
Directions:
Directions:
1. Marinade the minced beef with salt and pepper (optional step), mix well and keep in the fridge until ready to cook.
3. Heat pan with 2 TBS Canola cooking oil or butter or half/half, fry garlic until golden.
4. Add a handful of fresh thyme, fresh rosemary and fresh basil leaves and fry until fragrant.
5. Add onion and fry until golden.
6. Turn up heat to high, add beef and quickly fry until brown but not fully cooked.
7. Add red wine, turn heat down, bring to simmer and cook under low heat as you don't want to overcooked the beef.
7. Add fresh tomatoes (or a can of pasta sauce if you prefer).
8. Add lemon juice and mix well.
9. Add salt, pepper, paprika, dried oregano or more thyme/basil leaves as desired.
10. Add 2 TBS olive oil, stir and mix well.
11. Cover and let it simmer under low fire for 1-2 hours to give a more intense taste. If it dries up, add water as desired.
12. Remove the used thyme from the sauce.
13. Bring to boil a pot of water and cook spaghetti according to package instructions.
14. Dish up on spaghetti and serve with meat sauce and grated cheese.
Additional Information:
As mentioned in the previous post, spaghetti with meat sauce is a staple dish in Denmark, especially popular with Danish kids during play date if the kid is staying for dinner. This recipe shows how to make it from scratch without using can tomatoes, etc. It is best to use fresh ingredients, the less processed the food, the better. Our family also likes to add minced carrots to the meat sauce after the fire is turned off to give it an additional crunch. We serve it with grated mozzarella cheese, and grated parmesan cheese, but this is optional.
References:
I like to use cherry tomatoes as they are more flavorful. These are bought from Netto or Føtex.
You can buy the European herbs from Netto supermarket. Above are thyme (timian) and rosemary (rosmarin)
This is the Danish basil (Basilikum)
Here you have the organic parsley (persille), dill (dild) and basil leaves (basilikum)
Here are the non-organic parsley (persille), dill (dild) and chives (purløg)
These are the dried basil leaves (basilikum) from Netto.
Marinade the minced beef with salt and pepper.
Add a tablespoon of soy sauce to the marinade (optional). Refrigerate until you are ready to cook it.
Mince onion with a food processor or by hand.
Heat pan and add 1 tablespoons of cooking oil.
and 1 tablespoon of butter.
Add minced garlic and fry until fragrant.
Add basil leaves and fry until fragrant.
Add thyme and/or rosemary and fry until fragrant.
Add onion and fry until golden and fragrant.
Add minced beef and
Turn up heat to high, add beef and quickly fry until brown but not fully cooked.
Add 100ml of red wine, turn heat down, bring to simmer and cook under low heat as you don't want to overcooked the beef.
I use a IKEA's measuring cup for the red wine.
Add 500g fresh tomatoes while the beef is still cooking. (If you are worried you may overcooked the meat, you could dish out the meat first, while cooking the tomatoes.)
Add 2 tablespoons of dried oregano, dried thyme, dried basil or a mixture of all.
Add juice of 1/2 lemon
Add a dried date pitted or a teaspoon of sugar for sweetness.
Add salt and
pepper to taste.
Add two tablespoon of olive oil into the sauce and stir well. It adds flavor and give it a nice texture.
Let the sauce simmer for 1-2 hours to get a more intense taste. If it dries up, add some water as desired.
After an hour, take a look.
Adjust with more paprika, stir and mix well to get a redder color.
Discard the used thyme.
Now it's done :-)
We like to switch off the fire and add raw grated carrots into the meat sauce and stir. It adds an extra crunch that my family likes and the increase the vitamin contents naturally as well :-)
To cook pasta:
Bring to boil a large pot of water, add a bit of olive oil.
Add salt.
Add pasta.
Cook pasta according to instructions in the package, normally about 8-9 minutes.
If you wish to save time when having guests, add spaghetti into the meat sauce.
Mix well.
Dish it out into a common serving dish.
Serve on an individual plate, sprinkle parmesan cheese and garnish with basil leaves.
Bon appetite :-)
