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.
My wife and I make spaghetti sauce a couple of times a year, but we make it in 2 giant stock pots and start with giant institutional cans of tomato puree and diced tomatoes, then cook and add the ground beef and Italian sausages and seasonings and then measure out portions into vacuum bags and freeze them. It takes twice as long to do those two stock pots compared to maybe two meals worth, but we get 12 meals out of that.
Want spaghetti? Grab a vacuum pack out of the freezer and put it in water to boil on the stove. When it’s defrosted and warmed up, cook the noodles and dinner is ready.