Until recently, I really didn’t know how to cook properly.

One of the things I used to make often was spaghetti bolognese. It was high in protein, fit my diet well, it was reasonably healthy, and so I made it about twice a week. The recipe was very simple: mince, onions, spaghetti, and a bottle of pasta sauce from the store.

Over time I started experimenting. I tried different recipes, added more ingredients, cooked parts separately, and let the sauce simmer longer. Bit by bit it evolved.

Now I make the sauce from scratch, cook the mince in a separate pan, add finely diced carrots and a do a bunch of extra steps I never used to, as well as letting everything simmer for a two hours.

The result is honestly fucking delicious and better than any spaghetti bolognese I’ve had in restaurants.

The problem is that it went from being my easy go-to meal to something that actually takes effort. I used to make it multiple times a week, but now I barely do.

And the worst part is I can’t go back to the old version anymore, because it just tastes disappointing.

I just wanted to rant, I’m frustrated because I want the dish more, but don’t want all of the added effort.

  • null@piefed.nullspace.lolEnglish
    13·
    5 days ago

    Being in the same situation, I ended up getting some big, silicon “ice cube” trays (if you used them for ice cubes the cubes would be huge). Each slot holds ~a serving of pasta sauce.

    We’ll make up batches of sauce and freeze them in these trays. Then you can pop a cube into a saucepan, add some cream (or other liquid base that makes sense for the sauce) and heat it up while you make the pasta.

    In my experience it works and tastes great, and makes it super easy for when you don’t have time or energy to cook.

    • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      We did this with tomato paste, since every recipe that uses it only ever needs 1 tbsp, and it’s sold in… idk, 6 oz? cans… put 1 tbsp dollops into an icecrube tray, froze em, then popped em out and threw them into a plastic bag and right back into the freezer. Now we just grab a tomato cube whenever we need one.