1 week ago
13
Here is a marriage of two of my favourite dishes: mapo tofu and spaghetti bolognese. Both titans of the food world, arguably neither needs to be messed with, yet here we are, simply because one day I couldn’t choose between them. There are many quotes about how indecision is bad and “the thief of opportunity”, but it can be the genesis of something new – in the kitchen, at least. The Sichuan part of the dish is represented by the aromatics – that is, ginger, garlic, spring onions and Sichuan pepper – and the “bolognese” by the sun-dried tomatoes and a trio of meaty ingredients: beetroot, walnut and mushroom. The result, I hope you’ll agree, is an exceptionally happy union.
Sichuan-spiced beetroot and walnut bolognese
You’ll need a food processor to make this. Chilli bean sauce, or toban djan, can be found in larger supermarkets, most Chinese supermarkets and online.
Prep 15 min
Cook 50 min
Serves 4
2 medium beetroots, scrubbed, peeled and roughly chopped (400g net)
50g shelled walnuts
400g chestnut mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2cm x 2cm piece ginger, peeled
150g spring onions, trimmed, roughly chopped and rinsed
4 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, roughly bashed in a mortar
2 tbsp chilli bean sauce – I use Lee Kum Kee
2 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
Fine sea salt
400g spaghetti
Put the beetroot and walnuts in a food processor and blitz until finely chopped. Scrape into a large bowl, then put the mushrooms in the processor and blitz to a fine crumb. Scrape the mushrooms into the same bowl. Put the garlic, ginger and spring onions in the food processor, pulse until finely minced, then transfer to a small bowl.
Heat the oil in a wide, nonstick pan. Once it’s hot, add the Sichuan pepper and the ginger, garlic and spring onion mixture, and fry, stirring, for three minutes. Add the beetroot, mushroom and walnut mixture – to begin with, it will feel like a lot, but the mix will soon collapse and reduce in size – and cook, stirring regularly and spreading the mixture evenly across the pan, for 20 minutes.
Stir in the chilli bean sauce and the sun-dried tomato paste, cook for another couple of minutes, then take off the heat.
Bring a pan of well-salted water to a boil – I use a teaspoon of salt per litre of water – drop in the spaghetti and, towards the end of the cooking time, take out a mugful (or 220ml) of the water. Add the drained spaghetti to the beetroot pan, pour in the reserved cooking water, toss to mix well and serve straight away.
