Genuine Italians beware, this is a corruption of your classic!

To feed 25 hungry cyclists at a spin class this is what I use.

Ingredients

• 2.5kg mince beef
• 3 large (810gm) cans crushed or chopped tomato
• 2 large jars tomato paste
• minced garlic (2-3 tablespoons or to taste)
• 2-4 chopped birds eye chillis or more if the cyclists are getting used to the dose
• 2 large onions - chopped
• 1-1.5kg mushrooms, whole or chopped coarse
• 2 tablespoons or more coarse ground black pepper
• 8 tablespoons dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme (don't overdo the thyme, if in doubt, less is better, or dinner tastes like twigs and there's nothing you can do about it except ditch the lot and order pizza....)

Fry up the onion, garlic & chilli in canola oil, slap in the beef & brown - add a splash (1-2 tablespoons) red wine if available when the beef is almost all brown.

Throw in everything else except the mushrooms and simmer for minimum 30 mins, ideally make the day before and refrigerate overnight so the herbs have more time to seep into everything.

Pop the mushrooms in close to serving time, if they go in too early they make the sauce too watery and they go soggy - usually 25 mins is plenty for the mushrooms to get warm but not leak all their water into the sauce.

For 25 cyclists at the end of a training session, 2.5kg dry pasta usually means some leftovers.  Pasta is cheap ... don't skimp on it!