Real Beef Bolognese

The stories surrounding the horsemeat in processed meals that are supposed to contain beef are pretty scary to say the least. Not necessarily because it's horsemeat that's involved, but because of the apparent complete lack of control over or indeed interest in the ingredients that go into making these meals. Now we know that all supermarkets have in recent years done their best to cater for different segments of the market and the value ranges have been around for many years. The fact that there seems to have been next to no monitoring of what goes into these meals is incredibly worrying not just from a food safety standpoint, if that wasn't bad enough. Just what do these mega buying corporations actually do to source the products that most of us are forced to buy because there isn't that much choice? Precious little it seems.

So, if you want to make some Beef Bolognese that you know is horse-free and contains ingredients that you actually recognise just use the basic ingredients themselves and cook from scratch. This is all you need:

• beef mince - a real butcher ought to be able to tell what is beef and what isn't
• tomatoes 
• onions
• herbs such a oregano, thyme, basil or marjoram
• olive oil for frying the meat and onions to start with

Simple ingredients that are easily available and easy to turn into beef bolognese. You could even use it to make a proper beef lasagne too.