Why This Make-Ahead Sauce Is A Lifesaver
When Laura Dalrymple and her partner Grant Hilliard were putting together their book, The Ethical Omnivore, there was one recipe that was always going to make the cut.
“It’s an absolute lifesaver,” says Laura of what she calls the put-your-feet-up meat sauce. “My children are a bit older now, but I spent many years juggling three sons and working, and the chaos of school holidays, and I know how it is at the end of the day, when the whole world’s about to melt down and you just need to get something on the table fast.”
The best thing about this sauce isn’t simply that it’s easy to make, or that you can freeze portions for later use. It’s that it goes with everything. Serve it over pasta or rice, add it to ratatouille, pile it into tacos, bake it topped with mashed potato and parsnip and grated parmesan. “The boys even used to put it on sandwiches, which for me was gross,” Laura laughs.
As co-owners of Feather and Bone Providores in Sydney, Laura and Grant are not just ethical butchers, they are also advocates for a better way of farming. After 15 years in business, Laura says that interest in sustainable food is higher than ever before.
“The pandemic has had a huge impact,” she says. “As the world turned upside down, people realised they needed to find out about supply chains and where their food was coming from.”
She says that people are becoming more aware of how food and politics are utterly intertwined. “Food is not disconnected from everything else: it’s about how we manage eco-systems, it’s about agriculture policy and water policy and health policy,” she says.
“We’re starting to take a more holistic approach. Those binary discussions about ‘do we eat meat or not eat meat’ are distractions from very important questions about the conditions in which animals are raised, about life for rural communities and farm workers and what’s happening with farm management. But we’re beginning to talk about how we can collectively change this thing – and that’s so wonderful and exciting and fills me with promise.”
Feather & Bone’s Put-Your-Feet-Up Meat Sauce
Makes 3.5kg or about 7 x 500g containers of sauce that each feed 3-4 people (depending on whether or not your house includes multiple teenage boys)
Preparation time 15 minutes | Cooking time 3 hours
200ml (7 fl oz) extra-virgin olive oil
2 small carrots (about 200g/7 oz), finely diced
3-4 celery stalks (about 200g/7 oz), finely diced
2 brown onions (about 300g/10½ oz), finely diced
8-10 garlic cloves (about 40g/1½ oz), crushed
200g (7 oz) speck, rind removed, diced
1kg (1 lb 2 oz) minced beef
125ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) red wine
160ml (5¼ fl oz) white wine
800ml (28 fl oz) beef stock
1.2kg (2lb 10oz) tomato passata or tinned crushed tomatoes
100g (3½ oz) tomato paste
3 tsp dried oregano
4 fresh bay leaves
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add carrot, celery, onion, garlic and speck, and sweat, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes until vegetables have softened but not browned; the time this takes will depend on how finely your vegetables are diced.
Increase heat to high and add mince, stirring and breaking it up as it fries, until browned and starting to catch on the bottom – about 5 minutes or so. Add red and white wine and stock, then tomato passata and tomato paste. Stir well, then add oregano, bay leaves and 2 teaspoons salt.
Let the sauce come to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer, put the lid on and simmer for about 3 hours until thick, rich and reduced. Eat it within a couple of days or freeze for up to 3 months.
