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.
Could you make a double or quadruple sauce recipe and freeze it? Making a bigger batch of bolognese doesn’t take significantly more time and then you can quickly reheat portions and boil the pasta for a quick weeknight meal. If you brown the meat then that would add extra time since you would need to brown one portion of meat at a time, since it will steam rather than brown if you overcrowd the pan.