June 1, 2025
Easy Bolognese Recipe
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
A classic weeknight dinner idea of an easy bolognese recipe – one of my favourite go to dinner ideas for something delicious
This is a recipe that has been, surprisingly, very highly requested. A recipe that has been made for generations already and we all have out lovely ways of making it. This is the simple easy bolognese recipe that I make weekly for something delicious
Weeknight dinner ideas
So, I love bolognese. Yes, it’s quite the famous staple recipe for thousands and thousands of families out there, probably weekly like me, but I do genuinely adore it. It’s a recipe that doesn’t take a tonne of time to make, it’s fresh and packed full of flavour, and is usually a crowd pleaser for basically everyone.
Along with my macaroni cheese, my lasagne, or even my sausage pasta bake, this bolognese recipe can show how much I adore anything related to pasta. 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.
Base of the sauce
As it hasn’t been long since I posted my lasagne recipe, I purposely wanted to post a slightly different base to the ‘sauce’ of this easy bolognese recipe. I want to make it as accessible as possible, and keeping it different to the other sauce means you have two different versions you can follow.
I start off my easy bolognese recipe with onions, rather than a soffritto (onions, celery and carrots). I wanted to purposely just use onion as it’s easier, and I know a lot of people who don’t like using carrots or celery. Adding in garlic, I like a lot but you can add as much or as little as you want.
I use red wine (you can substitute for more beef stock), beef stock, and chopped tomatoes for the main sauce part of this delicious rich bolognese sauce. A little tomato puree, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce – an easy and throw together sauce that I just whack into the pan and stir.
Meat and flavours
For the meat part of this recipe, I nearly always use beef mince. I prefer to use beef mince, but I know a lot of people like to use a mix of a few such as pork and beef, or even lamb, or even turkey if you want a lower fat one. It’s entirely up to you on which mince you use – but I generally use the lower fat beef mince from the supermarket.
I also add in pancetta, because I adore it in this recipe – but this can be swapped for lardons, or you can leave it out entirely. It adds an extra and deeper flavour that is lovely and salty and I adore it.
I add Italians herbs, and dried thyme – but you can switch the herbs to mixed herbs, oregano, basil, or anything that you prefer – or increase the volume, or add none at all. A sprinkling of salt and pepper as you should always add for seasoning.
Freeze & prep
When it comes to a dish like this, it serves a healthy few portions of probably about 6-8 people, maybe even more. Serving sizes on something like a bolognese recipe can really vary so I say a guide of the 6-8 myself. I tend to make a batch of this delicious easy bolognese and then freeze 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.
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.
Tips & Tricks
- 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
- You can swap the beef mince for any other type of mince
- You can sub one onion for a carrot/celery if you want to use that for a base
- The pancetta is optional, or sub for lardons
- Red wine can be subbed for more beef stock
- Fresh tomatoes are nice to add
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
- You can swap the beef mince for any other type of mince
- You can sub one onion for a carrot/celery if you want to use that for a base
- The pancetta is optional, or sub for lardons
- Red wine can be subbed for more beef stock
- Fresh tomatoes are nice to add
Find my other recipes on my Recipes Page!
You can find me on:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Youtube
J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Mmmmm. Slurp-worthy. 🍝🍃🧡