Mary stirs up new debate: What DO you put in spag bol?
IT is one of our most popular dishes, whether we are eating in a restaurant or whipping up a comforting meal at home.
And she is one of our best-loved TV cooks. So viewers thought they were in for a treat when Mary Berry revealed how she makes spaghetti bolognese.
But they were in for several shocks. First of all, there was no spaghetti in sight.
Then came an unusual – some would say sacrilegious – twist on what most Britons would call bolognese sauce. For Miss Berry’s version of the Italian ragu used white wine instead of red... and double cream.
Experts said the 81-year- old’s choice of ingredients was ‘rather strange’, as was her decision to cook the sauce in the oven rather than on the hob. Some of the 2.2million who tuned in to BBC2’s Mary Berry Everyday on Monday night claimed to have switched off in disgust. Others said they were ‘appalled’ that the veteran chef had taken such liberties with a popular classic.
The former Great British Bake Off judge told viewers: ‘We Brits cook bolognese more than any other meat recipe, so here goes.’
She opened a bottle of white wine and poured some in, saying: ‘A very important ingredient is wine, white or red – whatever you have got to hand, though I really prefer to add white.’
If that irritated some fans, others were enraged by her next step. ‘After an hour in the oven my secret is to make it even richer by adding double cream,’ she said.
One viewer tweeted: ‘Mary Berry put white wine in bolognese. Turned it off. #shudders.’ Another said: ‘White wine... double cream herbs. That’s breaking every Italian kitchen rule.’ Other fans pointed out that old Italian cookbooks do permit cream and white wine – and the recipe for an authentic bolognese stirs controversy even among Italians. Most use a mix of veal and pork rather than beef. Some say there should be no herbs or tomatoes. A few add chicken livers. They are adamant about one thing: it should never be served with spaghetti. Italians insist on tagliatelle and Miss Berry used the similar pappardelle – broad, flat pasta noodles. Mark Askew, chef director of The Ivy Collection, said of her ragu: ‘It seems rather strange to use white wine, because the end result you want for the sauce is red not white. The cream just adds more fat. I can’t see what it would bring.’ He supported the decision to cook it in the oven to prevent burning and make the meat ten- der. It is not the first time one of Miss Berry’s recipes has been questioned by purists.
In September Bake Off viewers criticised her for icing a bakewell tart, saying the authentic version uses almonds as a topping and what she had made was more properly called a cherry bakewell.