by Anna Sugden
For spaghetti bolognese, I have three secret ingredients. One, I learned while backpacking in Greece is a pinch or two of ground Allspice. It brings out the flavour of the mince perfectly. The second is a teaspoonful of turmeric, which rounds out the flavour of the tomato.
What was his secret ingredient?
Believe it or not … milk.
There are more than a hundred ways with ground beef, or minced meat as we call it at home. Every country has their stock recipes which are filling and easy to cook. Over here it’s meatloaf or burgers. At home, it’s cottage pie or spaghetti bolognese (ground meat and tomato sauce). Dishes we learn from our parents, as students or from the first cook book. We all have our own variations on these dishes - that secret ingredient that makes our dish tastier than everyone else’s.
For spaghetti bolognese, I have three secret ingredients. One, I learned while backpacking in Greece is a pinch or two of ground Allspice. It brings out the flavour of the mince perfectly. The second is a teaspoonful of turmeric, which rounds out the flavour of the tomato.
The third, I picked up from fabulous Italian chef Antonio Carluccio. His wonderful TV series on Italian cooking was a feast to behold. He makes everything sound easy to cook and his recipes are delicious.
What was his secret ingredient?
Believe it or not … milk.
Figuring he hasn’t led me astray before, I tried Carluccio’s suggestion and added a cup of milk to my spaghetti bolognese recipe. And it worked. It made the whole dish richer and tastier. Who'd have thought?
As writers, our work often progresses or makes a big leap forward through the addition of a secret ingredient. It could be learning to use GMC to develop stronger, richer characters. Or increasing the amount of dialogue to intensify pace. Or using more deep point of view.
Those who have sold will often say that there was one thing - one special ingredient - that they had to discover about their writing, which enabled them to make that magical leap from unpublished to published. I know there were several a-ha moments in my writing career, which enabled me to make the leap to finalling in, and then winning contests, and to revisions requests from editors instead of form rejections. I’m still searching for that secret ingredient which will help me make that first sale. But, I know it’s there. I just have to find it.
So, what is your secret ingredient - either for meatloaf, spaghetti bolognese, another dish or in your writing?
