When you are busy, tired and messy brained quick and easy food can feel like the way to go. Serve up beans on toast or a pile of fish fingers and the job’s a good ‘un. It’s a task off the list, a tick in the box.
But quick and easy can make you feel rushed and overwhelmed. What you need is something simple that takes a long time. When I’m feeling anxious, out of control and teetering of the edge, it is time to make bolognese. More specifically, Marcella Hazan’s bolognese sauce. Her book, The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is classed as a masterpiece of cookery writing. My copy is battered but loved and her recipe for bolognese is my go to. Bolognese is not a quick thing in this house. Once the sauce is simmering it cooks for 5 hours.
The initial preparation and getting the sauce started takes about 30 minutes and I find the process really calming. Then you are simply pottering about the house, tending to the sauce every now and again until everything is gloriously soft and the house smells amazing. At this point I feel a wee bit more in control and happy that in the midst of a personal whirlwind I can still feed people.