Bolognese Zoodle Bake

• Preheat a pan over medium heat, and set your slow cooker onto “low.” Finely dice half of a medium sized brown onion while you wait for the pan to heat up.
  ½ brown onion
• Add olive oil to the frying pan.
  1 tbsp olive oil
• Once the oil becomes hot, add the diced onion. Cook until the onions start to become translucent and pick up a bit of color.
• Add in the crushed garlic cloves.
  2 cloves garlic
• Crumble the minced beef into the pan. Don't worry too much about breaking up the chunks as they cook. Everything is going to fall apart in the slow cooker anyway.
  700 g minced beef
• Add in thyme, nutmeg, marjoram, and pepper to taste.
  ½ tsp dried thyme, ½ tsp ground nutmeg, ½ tsp marjoram, 1/4 tsp pepper
• Mix everything together and allow the beef to cook until it has mostly browned.
• Add marinara sauce and stir into the beef.
  2 cups marinara
• Stir in the heavy whipping cream.
  2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
• Finish the sauce by mixing in chicken stock.
  ¼ cup chicken stock
• Turn the heat off and allow the sauce to rest for about 10 minutes before transferring it into the preheated slow cooker. Be careful not to pour hot sauce into cold stoneware. I've cracked them before!
• Cover the slow cooker and allow the sauce to simmer for 8 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. When the sauce is ready it will take on a deep color and the house will smell like lasagne. After the sauce has finished cooking you can season with salt if needed.
  1/4 tsp salt
• Preheat your oven to 180C.
• Set up a vegetable spiralizer. Use it to process the zucchini into noodles, and place the noodles in a casserole dish. Break apart the longer strands so that none of them are too long.
  2 zucchini
• Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the noodles. Season to taste and then mix together.
  2 tbsp olive oil
• Spread your bolognese sauce over the top of the zucchini.
• Top the casserole with mozzarella cheese.
  1 cup mozzarella

OVEN

• If baking directly after cooking the Bolognese sauce then you will only need to heat in the oven for 15-20 minutes. If you've made the sauce ahead of time and it's been chilled in the refrigerator then you will need to bake for 30-35 minutes.
• Garnish with fresh basil if desired.