Design & Technology: Adapting Bolognese

This half term in Design Technology, Year 5 have been exploring food and nutrition, with a focus on where our food comes from and how recipes can be adapted to be healthier and more suitable for different audiences.

We began by learning about the journey from farm to fork and even explored the question: is spaghetti bolognese really Italian, or is it more of a British favourite? This sparked some great discussion and curiosity across the class.

For our main project, we were set the challenge of designing a new spaghetti bolognese recipe that could potentially be suggested for our school lunch menu. After analysing a basic recipe, we decided it needed more vegetables, as it only included carrot and onion. We were given three options to choose from, pepper, mushroom and courgette, and worked collaboratively to decide what to include. Our vegetarian group voted to add courgette and pepper, while the meat group chose pepper and mushroom.

Once our recipes were decided, we explored how these changes would affect nutritional values. Using a nutritional calculator, we compared the meat version with a meat substitute alternative. We discovered that while the vegetarian option was lower in calories, it was higher in carbohydrates, which led to thoughtful discussions about what makes a balanced meal.

While one group worked in the Creativity Room preparing and cooking our dishes, developing their chopping, mixing and teamwork skills, the other group focused on designing eye catching packaging labels. We thought carefully about what makes a product stand out and included key nutritional information alongside persuasive paragraphs to encourage others to try our recipes.

Finally, we came together for the highlight of the week, the taste test. It was fantastic to see so many children being adventurous and open minded when trying both versions of the dish. We were incredibly proud of the teamwork, effort and enthusiasm shown by everyone. We even had some special guests come and try our amazing creations: Mr Kersys (our school DT lead), Miss Coleman and Miss Carruthers!

To round off our learning, we will be evaluating our recipes and reflecting on what we might improve, as well as completing a quiz to showcase everything we have learned about cooking and nutrition this year.

Year 5, which version would you recommend for our school menu?