Bolognese sauce

The sauce is the freezer staple, not the finished plate. A big pot of ragù made with ground beef and pork, a soffritto of onion, carrot and celery, and tomato, simmered slowly, freezes in flat bags or quart tubs and reheats in the time it takes fresh pasta to boil. Cooked spaghetti frozen on its own turns mushy, so it stays out of the freezer. Because the ragù is mostly meat and vegetables cooked down, there is little loose water to separate on thawing, and a long simmer makes doubling the batch almost free. Freeze some portions thin in bags so they thaw quickly, and keep a few larger tubs for lasagna or stuffed peppers later.