All-rounder bolognese
A trusty, versatile and freezer friendly all-rounder bolognese, filled with Italian flavours, perfect to top your pasta with or make into a lasagna or pasta bake.
Ingredients
- 1 kg 5 star beef mince
- 3-4 tbsps olive oil
- 1 brown onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic core removed, finely diced
- 700 g bottle of passata
- 400 g can of crushed/diced tomatoes
- 50 g tomato paste
- 250 ml beef stock
- 3 tbsp white sugar Note 1
- 2 tbsp Italian herbs
- 1 tsp salt + pepper
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp vegemite or 2 tsp of worcestershire sauce
- 3 small or 2 large bay leaves
- 150 ml of thickened cream heavy cream/whipping cream
Instructions
- Prepare your ingredients - dicing your onion and garlic and prepare your seasonings.
- Heat up a pot on medium heat and add in the oil. Add in the onion and cook until it’s soft and lightly golden. Then add in the garlic and cook for up to 1 minute - be careful not to burn it, it’ll cook quickly.
- Add in the beef mince, breaking it up into smaller pieces, cooking the meat through.
- Pour in the can of tomatoes and the bottle of passata. Put the beef stock into the tomato can and passata bottle to soak up the leftover tomatoes and pour into the pot.
- Add in the herbs, spices and seasonings - tomato paste, sugar, salt, pepper, chilli powder, vegemite and bay leaves - stir everything together and simmer until it reduces into a luscious sauce.
- Once the sauce is at your desired consistency, add in the cream, stir and bring back up to simmer. Adjust seasonings to taste and simmer a little longer if the cream thinned your sauce out too much.
- Serve atop your favourite pasta or use in a pasta bake.
Video
Notes
General Notes
Note 1
Sugar - Don't feel put off by how much sugar I've added in. I feel as though adding sugar to a tomato based sauce is very controversial, even when using good quality tomato products from Mutti. Yes, the carrot in the soffrito can add the sweetness to a sauce but I don’t use a soffrito since I’m not a fan of celery. It does seem like I add a lot, however it’s around 60 grams for 1kg+ of tomatoes. I like my sauce on the sweeter side so I add more but I recommend starting out with a little bit, tasting it, and adding more if you want too.
Storage
Bolognese freezes perfectly, great for busy weeknights. Store portions in airtight containers; they can stay in the fridge up to 3 days before being put in the freezer. When heating them up, put in a splash of water into the container, enough to have a thin layer of water in your container, because after cooking, the sauce thickens as it cools and it becomes thick so the extra water helps the bolognese from becoming too thick and drying out while it’s being heated up.