Until recently, I really didn’t know how to cook properly.
One of the things I used to make often was spaghetti bolognese. It was high in protein, fit my diet well, it was reasonably healthy, and so I made it about twice a week. The recipe was very simple: mince, onions, spaghetti, and a bottle of pasta sauce from the store.
Over time I started experimenting. I tried different recipes, added more ingredients, cooked parts separately, and let the sauce simmer longer. Bit by bit it evolved.
Now I make the sauce from scratch, cook the mince in a separate pan, add finely diced carrots and a do a bunch of extra steps I never used to, as well as letting everything simmer for a two hours.
The result is honestly fucking delicious and better than any spaghetti bolognese I’ve had in restaurants.
The problem is that it went from being my easy go-to meal to something that actually takes effort. I used to make it multiple times a week, but now I barely do.
And the worst part is I can’t go back to the old version anymore, because it just tastes disappointing.
I just wanted to rant, I’m frustrated because I want the dish more, but don’t want all of the added effort.
I know what you mean, but there’s hope yet. If you specifically don’t want advice… ignore quite a lot of this, I guess, I’m just grabbing the excuse to nerd out
If you have a freezer, you’re good, bolognese is decent freezer food, you can prep a silly amount and “flatpack”, and be set for ages.
Browning the meat doesn’t sound like a huge part of the overall effort, but if it’s a pain, halfass or skip it. You don’t need a separate pot, just do it in your main one. Depends on how set you are on the browned flavors, one upside to browning less of it is that it’ll be more tender since the meat structure seizes up on aggressive heating.
Mincing veg, maybe especially the carrot, is a fucking pain, but you can grate or process them instead, or conceivably just skip the carrots at least. Especially with the processor it’s stupid quick and you can freeze that too, since it goes in a wet cook and the texture isn’t important.
Anything you do skip, there’s probably a way to “cheat” and at least partially make up for it. Beef fond, soy, Maggi and/or fish sauce, sugar, onion/garlic granules, maybe a careful pinch of some warming spices or cocoa. Adds “complexity” and whatnot from shelf stable stuff that doesn’t need prepping
(Since you mentioned fiber, I can endorse lentils with/besides/instead of the meat too. Red split lentils stew down really easily and add body)
I bought one of these, and it’s amazing!! It saves a TON of time and has now halved the effort.
It still has to simmer for a long time, but that’s fairly chilled