If you’ve been making bolognese with pasta sauce at home, you’ve probably never tasted bolognese like ours before - this recipe is going to change things for you!

This bolognese sauce is rich in flavours once you get the steps right, we don’t ever buy pasta sauce in our house.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 3 hours

Serves: 2 - 3

Now don’t let the cook time deter you! Start making this after lunch and you’ll have your dinner ready to serve in time. It’s mostly going to be left unattended over the stove anyway, so don’t miss out on delicious home cooked food!

Ingredients

1 carrot
3/4 celery stalk
1 small-medium sized white onion
400g ground beef
2 - 3 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 - 3/4 cup white wine
500ml chicken stock
Rosemary or thyme
Salt & black pepper to taste
Spaghetti

Method

Dice vegetables into tiny pieces
Heat a good sized pot then add ground beef to the pot to brown
Spread out the meat evenly and let the layer form a good crust without touching it for a good few minutes. You’ll see a lot of juices appear - it’s normal!
Stir the meat around the pot, letting the other side of the meat brown as well. Most of the juices should have boiled off by now, and the ground beef should start to brown and crust at the bottom of the pot.
Once you’re satisfied with the browning of the beef, set it aside and you should have a pot with a lot of meat & oil residue.
Throw in the diced vegetables for a good sauté. Add extra virgin olive oil or beef tallow if more oil is needed, but we had more than enough fat from the ground beef.
Once onions are translucent, add tomato paste and fry until it turns into a dark, brick red colour. It should start to smell super fragrant & rich!
Then add white wine, honestly you can eyeball the amount and follow the measurements we used. Most of it will evaporate so no worries!
Fry the mixture until the smell of alcohol is not present anymore, then add the meat back, herbs and chicken stock.
Mix well and let the mixture reduce and thicken for at least 2.5 hours, checking on it and stirring occasionally. Do not cover the pot with a lid completely as that will prevent reduction from happening.
You can cut the heat anytime, as long as you like the consistency of your bolognese sauce. Add salt & black pepper to taste!
Cook your pasta according to the brand’s guidelines and save about 2 tablespoons of pasta water.
Add some of the bolognese sauce to a hot pan, and mix together with some pasta water.
Then add cooked spaghetti to the sauce in the pan, and your spaghetti bolognese is ready to be served with some grated parmesan cheese!

Notes

You may substitute white wine with red wine
You may substitute chicken stock with veggie or beef stock
(optional) Serve with a drizzle of lemon olive oil if you have it at home!

This is the way we enjoy our bolognese! The meat sauce coats every pasta noodle just nicely, and once we’re done eating, we’re not left with a whole bunch of wet sauce on our plates. Try this if you’re keen to make some legitly good pasta at home without store-bought sauces~