Paleo Bolognese

Let's face it, when it comes to Italian comfort food, a big, silky bolognese and a huge heap of spaghetti all dusted with far too much parmesan...Well, that takes some beating.
Luckily for us, the basic sauce recipe is paleo and will need hardly any tweaking.  Though you'll have to get creative with the pasta substitute. Carrots and courgette, run through a juilienne peeler and stir fried are ok.
Sweet potato sliced micro thin on a mandolin and sauteed...That's even better. Thanks to http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/ for that and tons of other recipes. So far my favourite pasta substitute.
I'm going to try a twist on that and use the peeler to create a sort of linguine/spaghetti with the potato.
Anyway, on with the recipe for the sauce.

Ingredients (Serves 6)
400g of good quality mince. (I often buy braising steak and blitz it in the food processor).
4 Carrots. Diced as small as you like.
1 Medium white onion. Diced small.
4 Cloves Garlic. Smashed up and chopped.
1 Can tomatoes.
6 inch squirt of tomato puree.
A pinch of salt.
A good pinch of black pepper.
1/2 tsp ground chilli. (Hot as you like).
Big handful of chopped basil. Chopped.
Small bunch of thyme and parsley. Chopped.
Beef stock. (Use cubes if you like).
Some water. (400 ml ish).

Method
 Fry the onion and garlic in some butter (or ghee etc).
Add in the meat, keep stirring until its nicely browned and most of the liquid has bubbled away.

Throw in the carrots, give it a stir for a couple of minutes. Add the herbs, salt and pepper, chilli and tomato puree and stir in for a minute or so more, then tip in the tomatoes, stock and enough water to just cover the meat and veg.

 Bring to the boil, cover and simmer on a low heat for about an hour.(If you're busy, this is when you throw it in a slow cooker and go to work, it'll be great when you come home).

The "Spaghetti"

Ingredients.

3 Large Sweet potatoes. (Choose the longer ones for the best "pasta"

Method. 

 Peel the sweet potatoes, then carefully run your julienne peeler down them to get lots and lots of spaghetti like strips. Take your time. It'll be worth it.

Heat up a wok or other large pan (Not crazy hot, more a medium flame) and add some butter, salt and pepper and the potato strips. I find it best to do them in batches, so divide your stack into three.

Stir fry them for roughly 5 minutes or so. Keep that sweet potato moving or it'll burn. Dump each batch in an oven dish to keep warm.

When you are done, just plate up, cover with the sauce and add a bit of your favourite cheese for a great meal.


If you haven't got a julienne peeler, click the link.
http://paleobiker.blogspot.co.uk/p/essential-kit.html