Bolognese sauce

Every household needs a favourite recipe for bolognese. Ours uses some bacon to add a little smoky flavour to the sauce. You can use a higher fat beef mince / ground beef for this recipe instead of veal and pork mince if you prefer. Also great for repurposing in later weeks for cannelloni or lasagne – so be sure to double the recipe.

BOLOGNESE SAUCE

Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 50 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp / 20ml of olive oil
• 2 rashers of bacon, diced
• 1 brown/yellow onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed or grated
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 stick of celery, finely diced
• 500g / 1 lb of veal & pork mince (or beef mince/ground beef)
• 2 tbsp of tomato paste (tomato concentrate)
• 800g / 28 oz of tinned/canned diced tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp of salt (iodised)
• ¼ tsp of caster / superfine sugar (optional)
• pasta of your choice
• grated parmesan

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan or cast iron dish. Add the bacon and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add the garlic, carrot and celery to the pot and cook for 10 minutes. Add a dash of water if they vegetables are browning.
3. Place the mince|ground meat in the pot and brown, stirring continuously to break up any lumps.
4. Add the tomato paste and stir for 2 minutes to combine.
5. Add the tomato, bay leaf, salt and sugar. Bring to the boil and then lower the heat and simmer for 40 minutes or more. The longer you cook it, the better the flavour.
6. Serve with your favourite pasta and parmesan.

TIP
If you are looking for a low-carb alternative to pasta to accompany your bolognese sauce, try zucchini noodles or ‘zoodles’ as they are known. You don’t need to cook the zoodles, simply add them to a small pot with some bolognese sauce and heat through for a few minutes.