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Serves 4-6 (or has wonderful leftovers!)
- 350 –
400g – short pasta noodles like macaroni or rigatoni (my favorite is campanelle)– cooked to al dente
Meat sauce:
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 star anise pod
- splash of olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic crushed
- 500 g of beef mince
- 1/2 cup (125ml) red wine – and maybe a splash more
- 1 tin of tomatoes
- 1 T miso paste
- 2 t sugar
- parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme – all chopped
- pinch of dried chilli flakes.
Bechamel sauce:
- 50g butter
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) flour)
- milk – about 2 1/2 – 3 cups
- 1 t Dijon mustard
- a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
- salt and pepper (I prefer white pepper here)
Garnish:
- 3/4 of a cup of breadcrumbs fried in about 50g of butter until golden. Add a few thyme leaves (optional)
- 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese for the top
Fry the onions and star anise in the olive oil until soft over a low temp until nearly soft.
Remove the star anise, add the garlic and the mince and turn up the heat. Fry this until the meat has caramelised.
Add the wine and and deglaze the pan and allow the liquid to cook off.
Add the rest of the ingredients and allow them to bubble away for a min of 45 minutes, but longer if possible.
Make the bechamel by melting the butter in a small pot and then add the flour, whisking constantly. Cook this for a bit until it is stiff. Add the milk bit by bit, continuing to whisk all the time until the sauce has thickened and does not thicken any further. Add the mustard, nutmeg and seasoning.better. Feel free to add a splash of wine later of if it looks to be drying out. About 10 minutes before you are ready to use it, take off the lid to allow the sauce to thicken.
Mix the cooked pasta with the bolognese sauce and add about 2/3 of the bechamel sauce and mix evenly. Empty this into an appropriately sized oven dish. Spread the remaining bechamel sauce over the top, sprinkle the crumb garnish and Parmesan cheese, and bake in an oven that has been pre heated to 180C for 25 minutes until golden and bubbling.
Bolognese Mac & Cheese,
