A British Spaghetti Bolognese

It's letter B in Alphabetti, an A to Z of twisted pasta. We are taking an easy shot at an absolute classic, spaghetti bolognese.

1 hour cook

Serves 4

Hugh Woodward

Ingredients

150gsliced unsmoked streaky bacon

800g10% fat beef mince

1 tbspflaked sea salt

50gunsalted butter

1 large carrot, peeled and finely diced

1celery rib, finely diced

1onion, peeled and finely diced

1 bunchthyme

2 tbsptomato concentrate

500mlblonde beer

1 tsp (or more if you like)worcestershire sauce

1 tbspmarmite

500mlbeef stock

500grigatoni, cooked

100gred leicester, grated

Spag bol is already pretty controversial, so why not take that even further and Anglicise the whole thing? Enter stage a whole host of slightly (in this context) suss British ingredients. You know what though? It works. The marmite gives complexity, a yeasty richness. Worcestershire sauce? Depth and tang. Give it a try - you won't regret it.

Method

Get a heavy bottomed saucepan and place the streaky bacon in it. Start on a low heat and gently render the fat from the bacon, leaving it crisp and delicious with a pan full of bacon fat. Remove using a slotted spoon and set aside.

Season the beef and fry in big chunks one at a time until they are nicely browned, then remove these and set aside as well.

Add the butter and turn down the heat, then gently fry the vegetables until soft and jammy. Add the thyme and tomato concentrate, then stir for around 30 seconds to cook out the metallic tomato taste.

Deglaze with the beer, then add the Worcershire sauce and the marmite. Pour on the stock and bring the whole thing to a gentle simmer - allow to thicken and reduce for around 40 minutes, until thick and delicious.

Toss together with the pasta and some of the cheese, then top with more cheese and revel in its Britishness.