A good recipe for Bolognese sauce?

BachSoon

Hi all

Does anyone please have a really good recipe for Bolognese sauce? DH keeps buying jars of it because it's better than any recipes I've tried so far which I agree it is, but I want to get away from the 'added ingredients' i.e. that reads like a chemistry set :eek:
It would preferably be full of veggies for toddler and flavour for DH oh and go well with soya mince instead of meat.
Tia! :beer:

jk0

I do this with Quorn:


Cut up a large onion and fry in olive oil until going brown. Add one carton of Passata, one third tube of umami paste, desert spoon of worcester sauce, one third jars of marjoram, garlic granules, oregano, & basil. Four or five bayleaves. About twenty turns of my pepper mill, then simmer for 10 mins, before adding half a pack of frozen Quorn mince, and simmer for another 10 mins.


Serves 3 people.

Nargleblast

Start with frying chopped onion and garlic.
Add finely chopped bacon. (Real or veggie alternative)
Add any finely chopped veg of choice.
Add mince of choice. A mixture of beef and pork is more authentic but various animal and non animal minces are available.
Add plenty of dried basil, oregano, black pepper.
Add tinned chopped tomatoes, half the tin full of water and a couple of stock cubes.
Add a couple of teaspoons of sugar to counter the acidity of the tomatoes.
Add a generous slug of red wine.
Simmer slowly in the pan, lid on, for about twenty minutes.
Take lid off and stir. Taste - correct seasoning according to your taste. If you think it needs more salt, garlic, herbs, whatever, add more and keep tasting. Cook for about fifteen minutes with the lid off to reduce and thicken the sauce. Serve with good pasta - folding the sauce through the pasta is a nice way to have it. Add grated Parmesan or the cheaper grana padano cheese on top. Enjoy!

spadoosh

Mines similar to nargleblast'. Just minus the wine and bacon (although think ill be adding bacon now). And add in a couple of spoonfuls of tomato paste.

maisie_cat

The red wine makes all the difference

dan958

Time also makes the difference. If you can simmer it for a long time, it will be better.

bouicca21

Ditto Nargleblast’s recipe. I often add chicken livers.

If you have veg avoidant children, it’s easy to lose a load of grated carrot in the mix too.

PipneyJane

It's a pity we're not allowed to link to blogs. A lifetime ago, I wrote a blog post called "Minced Beef and Other Possibilities". Here's my bolognese sauce recipe, lifted from that post. This makes 4-6 hearty servings:

Ingredients

250g minced (ground) beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 aubergine (eggplant) - see method, below
100-200g mushrooms, sliced
1-2 carrots, grated
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 beef stock cube
1x400g can chopped tomatoes
¼ cup split red lentils (optional)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon soft dark molasses sugar/muscovado sugar
1 glass red wine

Method:

1. Chop the prickly end off the aubergine, pierce it with a fork a few times and zap in the microwave for 10 minutes.
2. Dry fry beef until brown. Add the onion and the garlic and fry until they're soft. Add the mushrooms and fry until the "water" has evaporated.
3. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato puree, carrot and stock cube (in that order).
4. Add the basil, wine and sugar.
5. Cut the cooked aubergine in half, scrape out the pulp with a spoon (careful it is hot!), then chop the pulp until it has the consistency of mush.
6. Stir the aubergine into the sauce. If using lentils, add together with 1 cup hot water (sauce should be very runny at this stage).
7. Bring to boil and simmer until you can't see the aubergine, the lentils are dissolving and the sauce is very thick. If it thickens up too soon, add boiling water (not cold) to thin it out and stop it from sticking.

HTH

- Pip

halogen

nutmeg would be my tip to add.

Izadora

jk0 wrote: »

Cut up a large onion and fry in olive oil until going brown. Add one carton of Passata, one third tube of umami paste, desert spoon of worcester sauce, one third jars of marjoram, garlic granules, oregano, & basil. Four or five bayleaves. About twenty turns of my pepper mill, then simmer for 10 mins, before adding half a pack of frozen Quorn mince, and simmer for another 10 mins.

Just in case anyone's doing this for someone who's vegetarian, leave out the worcester sauce.

Mine's similar to Nargleblast's too, although I don't use sugar and I add a hefty dollop of tomato puree.

maman

dan958 wrote: »

Time also makes the difference. If you can simmer it for a long time, it will be better.

I always think it tastes better the next day or even longer as the meat marinates in the sauce. I rarely eat mine on the day, usually batch cook for the freezer.

maisie_cat wrote: »

The red wine makes all the difference

I use Tesco own brand red wine (or white wine) stock cubes as a lower calorie alternative.