Easy Bolognese Recipe
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This easy beef bolognese is a quick, accessible take on the Italian classic. Made with lean beef mince, smoky pancetta, and a rich red wine and tomato base. It takes just 10 minutes to prep and simmers to perfection in 30 minutes. This recipe makes 8 generous portions, making it ideal for batch cooking and freezing.
Building a deep, flavourful base
A traditional Italian ragu typically starts with a soffritto; a finely diced mix of onions, celery, and carrots cooked down slowly in olive oil. However, to make this as quick and fuss-free as possible we are bypassing the celery and carrots entirely. We are focusing purely on a base of finely chopped onions and plenty of minced garlic.
The liquid base relies on a beautiful combination of high quality chopped tomatoes, concentrated tomato puree, rich beef stock, and a generous splash of red wine. To tie the whole sauce together and add a subtle kick, add a dash of Worcestershire sauce. It’s a simple “throw-together” method that builds a thick, complex sauce with minimal effort.
Selecting and layering meat flavours
For the protein element of this dish, I typically use a standard low-fat (typically 5% fat) beef mince. It keeps the dish lighter and prevents a layer of grease from pooling at the top of your pan. However, the beauty of a homemade bolognese is its versatility. You can easily use a 50/50 mix of pork and beef mince for an authentic, softer texture, or switch to turkey mince if you are looking for a leaner alternative.
To elevate the beef and add a wonderful, salty complexity, I love incorporating diced Italian pancetta into the base. It crisps up beautifully with the onions and infuses the oil with a rich, smoky undertone. If you can’t source pancetta, smoked bacon lardons make a flawless substitute, or you can omit it altogether if you want to keep the sauce strictly beef.
The power of the simmer
This recipe is designed to be fully cooked and ready to serve in just 30 minutes. However, it is a rule of thumb in Italian cooking that time is your best ingredient.
The initial 30-minute simmer is the minimum required time to burn off the sharp alcohol edge of the red wine. However, if you have time on a weekend, turning the heat down to its lowest setting is best. Letting the bolognese gently bubble away for an hour or two will cause the meat to become incredibly tender. Whilst thickening the sauce into a glossy, velvety masterpiece.
How to serve
There are LOTS of opinions on how you should serve bolognese even just amongst the people that I know. I am not judging anyones methods, I am simply going to say how I have mine, with lots of pasta. I typically have spaghetti, as I like to stir the bolognese sauce through the freshly cooked pasta, and then add a layer of cheddar cheese and parmesan.
Of course, you can use any pasta you like not stir it through and serve it on the side, not add any cheese, add even more cheese, etc. I also love a chunk of garlic bread because why not, but again that is up to you.
FAQs
If you prefer not to cook with alcohol you can easily swap the 150ml of red wine for extra beef stock. To mimic the natural acidity that wine provides to the rich tomatoes, simply add a tablespoon of red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar to the pan alongside the stock.
Absolutely. While this recipe keeps it simple with just onions and garlic, it serves as an excellent canvas for extra veg. You can finely grate a carrot and a stick of celery into the onions at the beginning. I have stirred in sliced mushrooms, diced courgettes, or fresh spinach leaves during the final 15 minutes of simmering.
Yes, it adapts beautifully to a slow cooker. You will just need to brown your onions, pancetta, and beef mince in a frying pan first. This helps to develop those caramelised flavours. Once browned, transfer everything to your slow cooker bowl along with the remaining ingredients. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or High for 3 to 4 hours.
While spaghetti is the classic British favorite, traditional Italian chefs usually pair a heavy, chunky meat ragù with wider, flatter pasta shapes like tagliatelle or pappardelle, or tubular shapes like rigatoni and penne. These have more surface area making them structurally better at catching and holding onto the thick chunks of minced beef.
Easy Bolognese
Ingredients
- drizzle of olive oil
- 1 large onion (or two medium) (Red or brown) (finely chopped)
- 100-200 g pancetta
- 500 g beef mince
- 3-4 + garlic cloves
- 2 tsp dried Italian herbs
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 150 ml red wine
- 300 ml beef stock (I use one stock pot and add water)
- 800 g chopped tomatoes (two tins)
- 2 tbsp tomato puree (or sun-dried tomato)
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add a drizzle of oil to a large pan and heat to a medium heat
- Add in the onion and stir and start to soften
- Add the pancetta and cook over the heat to cook the pancetta and continue softening the onion
- Add the beef mince, and break down into small pieces. Cook until it all turns brown
- Add the garlic, Italian herbs, thyme and stir and cook
- Pour in the red wine and let this simmer into the mix
- Add the beef stock (I used a stock pot and added water separately)
- Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato puree, along with the Worcestershire sauce and and salt and pepper
- Stir all together and simmer – minimum of 30 minutes, but I generally like to simmer on a low heat for longer to infuse the flavour better.
- Serve with pasta, cheese and garlic bread or however you'd like!
Notes
- This recipe is best fresh, but can be cooled and kept in the fridge for 3 days
- You can freeze the bolognese for 3+ months
Serving and freezing
When it comes to a dish like this, it serves a healthy few portions of probably about 6-8 people, maybe even more. Usually, I batch cooking this delicious easy bolognese and then freezing into the portions I am going to use in the future as I don’t have eight people in the house.
I usually make a batch and eat one portion on the day when it’s freshly made – and then the rest I will portion into freezer proof containers. I let the bolognese cool fully into the containers and then freeze (named and dated) and it freezes for 3+ months. I love a weeknight dinner idea that portions and preps super easy like this one.
Related recipes
This bolognese recipe can show how much I adore anything related to pasta. You just have to see my macaroni cheese, my lasagne, or even my sausage pasta bake. I just love pasta, and I think it’s my favourite carb. I would say I eat a variety of food during the weeknights, but I just don’t get bored of a pasta based meal.
Mmmmm. Slurp-worthy. 🍝🍃🧡