donotpanic

Remember, pasta (spaghetti or linguini in this case) is 100g per person.

Frozen veggie mince is good (Sainsbury’s do the best one imho), but you can get huge sacks of dried TVP (textured vegetable protein) for bugger all from health food shops. Just reconstitute with boiling water and use as if it were the frozen stuff.

Ingredients

• 1 glug of olive oil
• 1 knob of butter
• 2 onions finely chopped
• 2 (medium) carrots grated
• 2 sticks of celery finely chopped
• 500g soy mince
• 1 small glass (125ml) of red wine (if you’re feeling flush)
• 2 tins tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 stock cube
• 2 cloves garlic crushed to a purée

Method

• Melt the butter and olive oil in a saucepan
• Sweat the onion, carrot and celery combo (called a soffritto in Italian) for at least 10 minutes until the veg is soft
• Turn up the heat, stir in the mince and fry for a couple of minutes
• Add the wine (if you haven’t drunk it), and let the alcohol boil off for a couple of minutes
• Add the tomatoes, fill one of the cans up with water and add that as well
• Mix in the tomato purée, stock cube, bay leaves and oregano and bring to the boil
• Turn the heat down and let it bubble away for 30 minutes or so, stirring occasionally
• Add a drop more water of it looks like it’s going to dry out
• It should start looking “rich” for want of a better description - thickened with tomatoey oiliness (I dunno)
• Add the garlic and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes and you should be done
• Oh and season it