This may be because I grew up in Port Augusta in the 80s, where the most exotic cuisine available was lemon chicken from the now-closed King Po Chinese Restaurant and Takeaway.

I'm not much of a creative cook and most of my staple dishes are traditional old-school country meals you might find in the Wirrabara Primary School Cookbook. I will unapologetically serve up casseroles, meat and three veg, roasts and tuna mornae alongside the multi-cultural offerings of the new millenium like laksa and curries.

Lots of blogs turn out amazing healthy recipes which I will happily pin to Pinterest and then forget about unless it promises the use of only one pan or mug, in the case of the amazing microwave brownie.

I think this cooking apathy comes from a pathological loathing of doing the dishes. I hate it. HAAAAATE it. And after finally moving into a house that has a dishwasher (cue angelic choir every time I open it), it is still a hard mindset to move away from. No longer do I have to be utensil retentive. However I will use the nasty cheap saucepans rather than the good Tefal ones because they can go in the dishwasher!

So, anyway, my top tips for spaghetti bolognese:

Use pork mince. Seriously. Even if you're not into pork (like me), use pork mince. You will never look back. We switched a few years ago and the change in flavour was amazing. Also, it's better for you.

Use a pre-made jar if you want but only as a base. Add extra cans of tomatoes, onion, fresh or minced garlic, herbs, salt and pepper, chilli flakes if you like. Add a splash of red wine. Not heaps, just a splash. Give it a good chance to simmer and boil down into flavourtown.

Use whatever pasta you want. Seriously. Nobody is judging. Bows, alphagetti, spirals, penne, fettucini . . . I like angel hair because it cooks quickly or the vegeroni spirals. Align yourself to a particular brand or get whatever's on special. Personally, I buy San Remo because they're South Australian, but that's me.

Serve, eat, freeze the rest.


Simples!

Where do you stand on spaghetti?