LAB NOTES: Bolognese Sauce Made With Homemade Textured Pea Protein.

I recently made homemade textured pea protein, or as close as a home cook can come to the commercial stuff. The question arose, what to do with the stuff once I made it. Since it’s a meat replacer, I decide to try a recipe that I was originally taught by my Ex-wife. Naturally, I substituted the textured pea protein for the ground beef.

ORIGINAL: ( As near as I can recall it )
INGREDIENTS: Bolognese.
3.5 lb ground beef
2 Medium Onions
1- 6 Cloves of Garlic ( A range to suit your taste )
1 Bunch of Flat leaf Parsley
3/4 cup of Burgundy ( Or plain red wine )
1 TBSP of Tomato paste.
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
Handful of dried Mint
1 tsp of dried Oregano
1/2 tsp of dried basil
4 to 6 bay leaves.
1/2 a lemon for each plate
Grated Parmesan
Salt/Pepper

UTENSILS: 
1 Cutting Board
1 Large glass mixing bowl
1 Paring knife
1 Chef’s knife
1 Skillet/Lid
1 Mixing Spoon
1 Silicone Spatula

METHOD:
Peel and dice the onions
Peel and dice the garlic
Cut the stems from the Flat leaf parsley and rough chop.
Once you have the veg diced.
Brown your ground meat. You can do half and half ground beef and ground pork
Once the meat is browned
put in the onions and garlic in and cook til soft, stirring occasionally.
Add the wine, simmer until most of it is evaporated.
Add 1/2 of the parsley
Stir through 1 TBSP of tomato paste
Add a 28 oz can of crushed, or diced tomatoes
Add the oregano, basil and mint and bay leaves.
Add the remainder of the parsley.
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Add enough water to just about cover the meat ( Put water in the tomatoes can to rinse it and get all the goodness. ).
Bring to a boil, then drop to a simmer and cover with the lid. Simmer at least half an hour.
Boil spaghetti al dente.
Drain
Serve on a plate with a sprinkling of grated parmesan.
add sauce. Squeeze the juice of half of a lemon over the pasta, combine. 
Sprinkle a little more parmesan over the plate.

LAB NOTES: 29 April, 2023
INGREDIENTS: 
167g/5.9oz Textured Pea Protein
167g/5.9oz boiling water
1 TBSP Better Than Bullion Lobster Soup Base
2 Medium Onions peeled and chunked.
1 TBSP Granulated Onion ( I added this to add a bit more Oooomph ).
1- 6 Cloves of Garlic ( I was out so I used granulated garlic )
1 TBSP Granulated Garlic
1 Bunch of Flat leaf Parsley ( Omitted )
3/4 cup of Burgundy ( Or plain red wine ), ( Omitted )
1  Can  170/6oz Tomato paste,
1 794g/28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 tsp Red pepper flakes ( I forgot them )
1 TBSP Cinnamon ( This adds an interesting note ).
3 TBSP Avocado, sunflower, or olive oil
Handful of dried Mint ( I forgot it this time ).
3 TBSP of dried Oregano ( Guestimated, I just put in what looked right ).
1 TBSP of dried basi ( Guestimated, I just put in what looked right )
1 TBSP Sage
1 TBSP Marjoram
4 to 6 bay leaves. ( Forgot, so omitted it )
1/2 a lemon for each plate
Grated Parmesan
Salt/Pepper

METHOD: 
I put the boiling water and textured pea protein into the pan along with a the oil on low heat.
I stirred it and peeled and chunked up the onions.
I kept stirring the mixture as I added in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, fresh ground black pepper and other ingredients. I tasted the sauce until it tasted right.
Then I brought it to a boil and dropped to a simmer. I let it simmer a few minutes. Then I turned off the heat and let it cool. Once it cooled enough, I put the pan in the refrigerator.

CONCLUSIONS: 30 April, 2023
Today I tasted the sauce and found it better than last night.
To free up the pan, I put the sauce in the Mason jars. The yield was two quarts and one pint.
I’ll be eating it with pasta, and rice this week.
This sauce is similar to, but not exactly like the sauce that I made under the tutelege of my former wife, however, it tastes quite nice. Perhaps, next time, I’ll try adding some red pepper flakes, mushroom powder, and nutritional yeast.

I will be making more of this sauce. I’ll definitely be making more of the homemade textured pea protein and trying it in other recipes.

FINAL CONCLUSION: 01 May, 2023
This sauce rocks. I paired some with Rigatoni and Parmesan 
In addition, I made homemade mushroom powder ( A future post ), so as not to waste any of the effort I’d put into making it, I put some water in the blender jar, swirled it around, then poured the mixtue into the pint jar that the sauce had been in, shook it and pour the water into the pan with the sauce. Then I sprinkled on some of the mushroom seasoning too.
This was so very tasty!

Be Safe!