Chop the onions, medium. See our onion Tip. Peel and chop the carrots, medium. Chop the celery. These can all be put together in the same bowl to make a ‘bed of vegetables’. The idea is to have all the pieces of all the vegetables the same size. Peel and finely chop the garlic and keep to one side. De-rind and chop the bacon with scissors. Heat the olive oil (about 2 or 3 tablespoons) in a large, high-sided frying pan or casserole on a high heat until you can feel the heat with your hand. Turn the heat down to medium and tip the entire bed of vegetables in, and keep them moving around in the oil until well coated and the vegetables begin to soften (the onions will start to go translucent), about 5 mins. Add the garlic and stir well until the harsh smell turns sweet, a couple of mins. Turn the heat back up and add the bacon. Stir until the bacon looks cooked (no pink) and the fat renders. Do not allow anything to burn; turn the heat back down if this looks like happening. Alternative: you can cook the bacon first in the big pan with a little oil until well cooked, then take out with a slotted spoon and reserve to one side. Do not clean the pan. Use the same pan and follow instructions with the vegetables etc and a little more oil as above until you get to the bacon stage.
Make sure pan is quite hot, then add the minced beef/pork, making sure you break it up with your fingers as you add, and again with the spatula as you stir. Keep stirring fast and turning and moving the meat until there is no pink and all the meat looks light brown. Keep the heat high and add a very generous glug of red wine (about half a bottle). Let it bubble for a couples of minutes until the alcohol smell turns sweet. Keep the rest of the wine to adjust later if needed. Add the tinned tomatoes and make sure the sauces comes to the boil.
Crumble in the stock cube, and add a really big squeeze of tomato puree. Add in the bay leaves and push them down into the sauce without breaking them. Add a big slug of Worcester sauce, and if wanted a small splash of Tabasco (do not add too much of the latter; be generous with the former). Season freshly ground black pepper. You can also add salt if needed, but it should not need much due to the stock cube - it will need a lot of pepper. Taste. Adjust with wine, puree, pepper, salt etc, and taste again, remembering that it will taste raw and not very beefy at this stage. Make sure the consistency is reasonably thick and chunky, but still saucy as it will reduce down a lot – add a little boiled water (hot) if needed, you can rinse out the tomato tins with this to add extra flavour.
Make sure the sauce is boiling, i.e. it is bubbling, then turn down the heat to the lowest setting and/or move to a smaller ring (also on lowest). Let it simmer for at least an hour, ideally two to three hours or more (the longer the better, up to a point). Check every half hour or so for consistency and also taste. Adjust with all the seasonings and water/wine, puree etc as needed. Have a lid handy. You can cook with lid on or off – lid on will keep it saucier; lid off will help it reduce. It depends on how wet it is what you do at what stage - you can chop and change as it cooks.
Grate the cheese. Use parmesan alone, or if preferred add in a little cheddar (the former makes it more traditional and sweeter, the latter adds savoury and more melt). Chop the parsley. See our herb Tip. Keep both to one side. About 20 minutes before serving, add the parsley to the sauce. Now or just before serving, remove bay leaves (or tell people to look out for them).
About 10/15 mins before serving, cook the spaghetti as per the cooking time on the pack. You need about 100g per person and water in a really large pan which is at a rolling boil, and salted. Push the pasta down into the water with a big spoon or pasta server, then stir it around so it doesn’t clump together
When cooked, drain the pasta and top with the sauce. Serve with the cheese.
Enjoy!
