Serves 4

Ingredients

• 400 grams lean mince, your choice – turkey is a good low fat option
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• 1 capsicum green or red, your choice (finely chopped, seeds & white membranes removed)
• 5 medium mushrooms (finely chopped, if liked)
• 1 dessert spoon water
• 1 clover garlic (crushed)
• 1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
• ½ glass red wine
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• teaspoon stock powder to taste (approx ½ tsp)
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• sweet chilli sauce (to taste)
• 250 grams dried spaghetti
• water to fill large saucepan

Method

1. Cook (on medium) the finely chopped vegetables in water for five minutes.
2. Add mince and garlic, and cook, stirring often, until mince turns brown.
3. Add bay leaf, red wine, black pepper, stock powder, tomatoes and sweet chilli sauce.
4. Continue cooking on low for at least fort-five minutes.
5. Toward end of cooking time, boil water and cook spaghetti until al dente (approx eight minutes).
6. Drain spaghetti and add to other saucepan with sauce.
7. The red wine can be replace with water for a lower calorie meal, but the wine adds a subtle zing to the dish, as does the sweet chilli sauce.

The flavour in this recipe becomes more interesting and tasty the longer you cook it. Forty-five minutes should be the minimum, one and a half hours is wonderful. It’s hard to believe something with so much flavour can be so good for you!