Why is my bolognese so Bland? Any tips from good cooks?

[UsernameA1B2]

I fry onions, carrots, celery and lean beef mince in a pan. Drain off excess fat. Then add tinned tomatoes, tomatoe puree, pepper, garlic, and italian herbs and leave to simmer. It tastes quite bland, what I am doing wrong? Any advice?

Oh yes, and a dash of Heinz tomato ketchup. Seriously!

I love the bolognaise sauce from this receipe (when the whole thing together is lovely too!)

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/macaroni-cheese-lasagne

Make sure the mince is cooking with the onion and garlic, season mince whilst still raw in the pan, add more garlic to the cooked mince. Let it shimmer for a while without adding the tomato sauce. about 20-30mins then add tomato sauce and use a beef stock and more pepper, basil. Let it all shimmer for another 20mins.

you need to cook it for a while to soak up the seasoning

You don’t need to add salt, just use all purpose seasoning it has enough salt in it.
I don’t cook with salt and nobody ever said my food is bland

I always add oregano to mine! And a good glug of red wine.

Leave the fat in there and add some diced bacon.

Don't drain off the fat - that's where the flavour is!
Also don't use tinned chopped tomatoes. It's a meat sauce, not a tomato one. You just need tomato puree and a beef stock cube and a dash of wine. Cook it for hours too, at least 2.5, but longer if if you can.
I also warm some milk with a bay leave, black pepper corns, half a nutmeg and a clove in, and then strain and add that periodically.

Simon Hopkinson's recipe for ragu here always works a treat! The long, slow cooking really helps the flavour develop. If you have a slow cooker you can start the recipe off on the hob and then transfer it to the slow cooker once all that's left to do is wait.

He uses veal but it also works fine with normal beef mince (I'm sure other meats would work too). The chicken livers can be left out if you don't have those.

Add beef stock, grated Parmesan (lots) and red wine

Fry the beef longer. Fry garlic briefly and Tom puree. Add stock cube. Simmer 30 mins

5% fat beef mince, garlic paste, a fresh chilli, bay leaf, oregano , onion, mild chilli powder, passata and basil. Not authentic but we love it.

My mum doesn’t put garlic paste, chilli or chilli powder in but does add carrot.

Neither DH or DM add stock but also don’t remove the fat.

Salt or a stock cube.

The alcohol doesn't cook off, that's a myth.

Use a Dutch oven

Fry your soffrito mix and out it to the side before frying off your mince in the same pan to prevent overloading.
When the mince is friend add the soffrito mix and some crushed garlic. Then when you can smell the garlic add tomato paste and a good glue of red wine.
Then using a wooden spoon scrape any bits stuck to the pan.
Add your plum tomatoes, a beef stock cube and your seasoning, if you've got a spare parmesan rind chuck thst in too. Cook in a low Oven for around 4 hours.

It might be me but I find supermarket minced beef tasteless and I very rarely buy it these days.

Really? I've always believed it did. Been giving DC red wine ragu for years!

alcohol does boil off, it's how distillation works.

Thanks for all the replies.
I'll try mince with more fat and not drain it all off. Is mince from a butcher better and less watery than supermarket mince?
I'll add more garlic, beef stock and wine or worcestershire sauce. I use Italian mixed herbs from thw supermarket, should I just be using oregano and basil?
I'll cook it for longer.

Some plain chocolate stirred in when it's almost cooked

@UsernameA1B2 I haven't tried butchers mince to be honest as I don't make Bolognese or anything with mince in much these days.

Only some of the alcohol boils off though

100ml beef stock, Henderson's relish, soy sauce

Knorr Aromat is the answer. Every chef's secret weapon. A delicious rustic blend of salt and MSG, passed down through the generations.

I'm with previous posters telling you to stop draining the fat off and cook it low and slow so the tomatoes breakdown.

Another vote for Worcestershire Sauce.

And if you can find it, Mushroom Ketchup. Adds a meaty kick.