I’ve been thinking a bit about the basic food that I turn into lots of different meals and this is right up there. I used to call it bolognese but it’s not really it’s a meat sauce and I learnt to cook it watching Ma cook as I grew up.

That said, this is not the way Ma cooked it, it was the 1970’s and ‘mince’ was cooked with mince beef, onions, sometimes mushrooms, water, oxo cubes (the beef ones were pretty much the only one they made then!) and tomato puree. Unlike the versions that my friends and cousins were subjected to, Ma’s version was never watery, it was a thick sauce and was quite happy on top of spaghetti or in a pie. This is because it took hours to make, once the meat was browned and the other ingredients added, it was simmered for a long time, at least two hours often longer.

So when I started making meat sauce for pasta, that’s how I started. Things have evolved over the years, I don’t put onions in and use passata and wine but the oxo cubes and the the very long cooking time and messy hob by the end of it remain.

I eat this on top of spaghetti, in a cottage pie, it’s the sauce in my lasagne and sometimes just on it’s own, covered in cheese and with toast. As I said it, it’s not anything an Italian would recognise but it works for me.

Dempsey Meat Sauce (adapted from my mum!)

What

2kg lean mince beef

4 OXO cubes

1 jar pasta sauce (I use Bertolli)

500ml pasata

half a bottle of red wine

350ml water

How

1) Using a pan large enough to put all the meat into, brown the meat (you may want to do this in stages to make it quicker). Remove the meat and drain any fat out of the pan.

2) Return the meat to the pan and add the pasta sauce, passata and oxo cubes. Use the wine and water to get any of the last bits of the sauce and passata out of the jars and add to the pan.

3) Bring to the boil and simmer until the sauce is really thick, usually about 3 hours.

Do you have any evolved family recipes? What are they?