I decided to make a bolognese sauce with some handmade pasta for date night.  Probably not something Tim Noakes will be proud of, but there are only a few things better than homemade pasta and a good pasta sauce.

Ingredients for the bolognese sauce

• 400g roughly chopped red onions
• 30g fresh, finely chopped garlic
• 250g chopped green pepper
• 5ml crushed, dried chillies
• 5ml crushed black pepper corns
• 10ml crushed cumin seeds
• 1.1kg mince (50% lean beef and 50% ostrich or switch the ostrich with pork or use 100% lean beef)
• 2 cans (820g in total) of chopped, peeled tomatoes
• 100g tomato puree
• 400ml beef stock
• 10ml dried origanum
• 100ml medium dry sherry
• 1.25ml fine nutmeg
• 1.25 fine cloves

Ingredients for the pasta

• 1 cup semolina flour
• 1 cup self raising (all purpose) flour
• 2 eggs

Instructions for the bolognese sauce

Sauté the onions, garlic, green pepper, chillies, pepper corns and cumin in a pan with oil. Add the mince and fry until the meat is light brown. Add the tomatoes, puree, beef stock and origanum. Let it simmer for 2 hours over slow heat. Add the sherry, nutmeg and cloves and let it simmer for another hour at least, stirring every 10 minutes.

Instructions for the pasta

Mix the semolina, self raising flour and eggs in a bowl. At first it would appear that there is not enough liquid to bind all of this together, but keep on kneading. The drier the consistency of the pasta, the better. If it really looks like you need to add some water, just wet your hands under the tap and continue.

Make a ball of the dough and wrap it in cellophane for at least 4 hours to rest. You can also put it in the fridge if you want to use the dough at a later stage.

Make little balls (about golf ball size) of the dough and put it through the pasta maker. This takes some experience and patience, but if you do it often enough, you will get the hang very quickly.

Bring a pot full of water to boil, add a tablespoon of oil and put the pasta in. The pasta should cook for about 8 minutes. Test a piece every now and then and remove it as soon as it is ready. Do not rinse the pasta.

Dish the pasta into a plate and add the bolognese sauce on top. You can add some grated parmesan cheese on top. I’ve also added some fresh parsley for garnish.

Starters

For starters we had some stuffed brown mushrooms filled with homemade bacon and parmesan and then baked in the oven.