Feather and Bone’s put-your-feet-up meat sauce

If you’re like us, the quest to achieve a sane work/life balance sometimes feels like a cross between an extreme sport practised by certified lunatics and a form of medieval torture. So it’s critical to have something nutritious in the freezer that you can whip out to tame the hordes on those nights when everyone’s at breaking point. This is our answer — a crowd-pleasing, healthy sauce made with a hearty, nutritious beef broth. Make it on Sunday afternoon, let it simmer away gently while you do something nice, then tuck it away in the freezer in serves. Serve it with pasta or rice, add it to a ratatouille, pile it into tacos, spoon it into iceberg lettuce leaves, bake it topped with mashed potato and parsnip and grated parmesan, or go full teenager and dollop it into a roll. The options are endless. Add more herbs or vegetables or an extra nutritional punch by including some offal in the mince — it adds a wonderful depth to the flavour and they’ll never know they’re eating offal. (Or go the whole way with Norman’s chicken heart Bolognese, here.) Good broth and long, slow cooking is the secret here.

Makes: 3.5 kg/about 7 x 500 g containers that each feed 3–4 people (depending on whether or not your house includes multiple teenage boys)
Preparation time: 15 minutes | Cooking time: 3 hours

200 ml (7 fl oz) extra-virgin olive oil

2 small carrots (about 200 g/7 oz), finely diced

3–4 celery stalks (about 200 g/7 oz), finely diced

2 brown onions (about 300 g/10½ oz), finely diced

8–10 garlic cloves (about 40 g/1½ oz), crushed

200 g (7 oz) speck, rind removed, diced

1 kg (1 lb 2 oz) minced beef

125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) red wine

160 ml (5¼ fl oz) white wine

800 ml (28 fl oz) beef stock

1.2 kg (2 lb 10 oz) tomato passata or tinned crushed tomatoes

100 g (3½ oz) tomato paste

3 teaspoons dried oregano

4 fresh bay leaves

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add carrot, celery, onion, garlic and speck, and sweat, stirring occasionally, for 5–10 minutes until vegetables have softened but not browned; the time this takes will depend on how finely your vegetables are diced.

Increase heat to high and add mince, stirring and breaking it up as it fries, until browned and starting to catch on the bottom — about 5 minutes or so. Add red and white wine and stock, then tomato passata and tomato paste. Stir well, then add oregano, bay leaves and 2 teaspoons salt.

Let the sauce come up to the boil, then reduce to a low simmer, put the lid on and simmer for about 3 hours until thick, rich and reduced. Eat it within a couple of days or freeze for up to 3 months.