This was a super hearty (almost like a chili) meat sauce and I would have eaten it just with a spoon. It was that good. This recipe was similar to the lentil and mushroom pasta sauce that I made a little while ago (Recipe #35), except that this one had ground meat instead of lentils. It was packed with veggies and had a really nice flavour.

First, I couldn’t find any suitable italian sausage so I replaced that with some ground chicken that I seasoned with tons of spices – basil, oregano, chili flakes, black pepper, thyme and garlic – to give the italian flavours. Second, as always, I replaced the mushrooms with extra zucchini and bell peppers.

Last change I made was instead of 2 jars of marinara sauce, I used 1 jar of tomato passata, 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes, and lots of seasoning – salt, pepper, oregano, basil, chili flakes, parsley and sugar. I much prefer making my own tomato sauce because I can control what goes in it, specifically the amount of salt.

When the sauce was simmering, it smelled so good and I wanted to try it right away. I tossed it with some whole wheat spaghetti and it was a great dinner.

Final thoughts: you have to make your own bolognese sauce, homemade is the way to go.