One day I’m eating like a vegan and the next it’s time for some meat. I basically like to eat everything. I also love that bolognese is such a good vehicle for getting some extra vegetables into a pasta dish. This rendition takes it one step further and uses ribbons of zucchini instead of pasta. Thus, it’s a low carb meal full of vegetables and lean protein – win!
When I make zucchini noodles like this, I’m a ig fan of seasoning them well. They need, lemon, salt and olive oil to really help the flavour shine. And I think it’s best to only let the heat of the sauce cook so they are more al dente and thus a much better replacement for actual pasta. Don’t get me wrong though, actual pasta is great but sometimes it’s nice to replace it with a vegetable so your squeezing more of them into your day.
This sauce is fructose friendly, but that’s a hugely difficult term as I find most people I know that are fructose malabsorpent have varying degrees of tolerance to different things. I can deal with a small amount of garlic, and small amounts of most fruits (not really apple and pear though – we’re just not mates). I’m also fine with lots of vegetables that some fructose sensitive peeps can’t deal with, onion is not one of them though. And the break up has been TOUGH. That said the only thing most fructose free peeps would want to stay away from in this is the garlic and you can just leave it out.
You may have your own favourite bolognese recipe, this one is all about using vegetables and herbs to develop flavour but go ahead and adapt it to make it your own. I’ve also added roasted capsicum before, thrown in sprigs of thyme and change up whether I use white wine or red depending on what’s around. I think good recipes are there for you to continuously adapt to suit your current tastes. I’ve also been known to chop a tiny bit of pancetta into this when browning the vegetables. That’s pretty amazing too. You can use a mix of mince if you like, I stuck to lean beef for the recipe to make it simpler.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 Tbs olive oil
2 sticks celery
2 carrots
2 cloves garlic
500g lean beef mince (best quality you can afford)
1/2 cup white wine
750ml passata
500ml beef stock or bone broth
1 sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan
1 tsp olive oil
6 zucchini
1 lemon
Black pepper
Salt
Parmesan to serve
Directions
Use a food processor or a good old fashioned knife to very finely chop the celery and carrots.
Put a large heavy based deep fry pan on medium high heat. Add a tbs of olive oil and once hot add the celery, carrot and garlic. Turn the heat down to medium low and cook the vegetables until softened.
Add beef mince and cook until browned, a little colour will develop more flavour.
Add the wine, and then once evaporated add the stock and passata. Add the rosemary and bay leaf and then simmer, covered for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and continue to cook on low heat for another 30 minutes. You can cook it longer if you have time just add more water or stock if it gets dry.
Meanwhile use a mandolin or vegetable peeler to shave long strips of zucchini. Sptinlebthe zucchini with salt and toss in 1 Tbs of the lemon juice and the tsp of olive oil.
When ready to serve stir the 1/3 cup of Parmesan through your sauce. Divide the zucchini between your serving bowls. Serve the sauce on top of the raw zucchini ribbons. The heat from the sauce will cook the ribbons to ‘al dente’ as you stir it through. Sprinkle with Parmesan and parsley and a good crack of black pepper.
HH. x
