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

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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?

Simmer for at least 45 mins and if it looks too wet, simmer with the lid off to concentrate the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. If it tastes bland it likely needs more salt. Also serve with good freshly grated parmesan if you don't already. Really lifts it.

Onion (cooked for longer than a few minutes)
Tons of garlic
Tomato purée
Tinned chopped tomatoes
Mixed herbs or fresh rosemary/thyme
Half a teaspoon of sugar (brings out sweetness in tomatoes)
Teaspoon of marmite
Worcestershire sauce
Salt - not if using pancetta
Optional pancetta/bacon
Cook on a low heat for a long as possible - I prefer at least an hour
Mine isn't strictly ragu but everyone likes it - it's based on a Delia Smith recipe
Serve it with Parmesan

And a chopped up beef stock cube

Reading with intrigue, for our meal, it was added bolonise, sauce

• I fry off onions, red peppers, mushrooms and garlic and then add the mince.
• drain the fat and then add beef stock cube in smell amount of water.
• let it simmer a minute or two and then add tomato purée, Passata, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, oregano and basil.
• leave it all to simmer while you cook the pasta.

Much more garlic, and added and fried after the onions have sweated a bit otherwise you're not getting the full flavour.

fry off your onions with six cloves of crushed garlic and a pinch of salt, and a small chilli, then add a good tablespoon of tomato purée and gently fry that. Add your other veg. Brown your mince separately and make sure you fry it rather than boil it. Add a tin of tomatoes, a good pinch of mixed herbs and a good grind of black pepper. Simmer everything until cooked, always check your seasoning.

Yes, if you have a good local butcher then get your mince from them. Free range or organic if you can afford it. We find the better quality meat goes much further so you don't need as much per person, so it doesn't actually work out that much more expensive anyway per portion.

Add chicken livers.

Also put the excess fat in the freezer. Let the fat solidify on the top. Remove it & re add the non fatty beef juices.

An odd tip but if you're ever roasting lamb save the juices, and seperate off the fat, freeze the jelly type stuff in an ice cube tray and use it instead of stock cube massive meaty hit. I do the same for roast chicken and then make risotto.

Do this:

Warning - contains swearing.

I make a trinity base - small diced onions, carrots and celery with salt cooked long and slow in olive oil - give it at least 1/2 an hour! They should be soft, slightly browned and caramelised. Brown the mince separately in a splash of oil - break into biggish chunks and leave it - don’t keep stirring it. It needs to get crispy bits for flavour. Chuck in a beef stock cube, a good glue of red wine, cook off the wine then add tomato purée and fry for a few minutes. Add the onions etc, a tin of tomatoes, a ton of garlic, thyme sprigs and oregano. Add a splash of Worcestershire, a teaspoon of soy sauce, and loads of black pepper!

I fry my tomato puree in a bit of oil until it goes darker brick red, then onion and garlic, then add 5% fat mince and cook the mixture until the meat is a bit caramelised. Then add a stock cube and carton of passata, and cook it for at least an hour.

It's rich and saucy! ;)

Try this and see if you like it:
start by frying lardons or diced pancetta with a pinch of cinnamon! You can’t taste it but it adds depth to the finished bolognese.

remove with slotted spoon, then proceed as usual (onion, celery, carrots, fresh herbs, ten minutes on low heat, glug of red wine, let that cook off briefly, add mince and brown it, tomatoes, then add pancetta or lardons back again).

Most people do not cook it for long enough. Three hours minimum. Slow cooker is great.

I like a bit of Worcestershire sauce or mushroom ketchup in mine. And ramp up the seasonings.

You should let the mince really brown when frying it.

Also don't just use tin tomatoes. Use Mutti Polpa.

Also it needs to cook for a long time. So for each tin of polpa tomatoes, you should add a tin of water and let it reduce down over several hours. You can also use a touch of sugar.

And DO NOT use Italian herb mix or oregano. The only herb needed while cooking is a few bay leaves. Don't over complicate it.

Garlic, onion, carrots, celery if you like for the sofritto. Salt, pepper a pinch of sugar if needed and a bay leave that stays in while it cooks. Right at the end you can sprinkle with basil if you like, but no other herbs.

The key is to let it cook and reduce down so it soaks up all the flavour !

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, definitely. Red or white wine and a beef stock cube if handy. Lots of fresh rosemary and sage, particularly if using half pork, half beef, mince (which has loads more flavour). Don't drain off the fat. Use Passata instead of tinned tomatoes. Add mushrooms towards the end of the cooking time.

I am late to this thread but as soon as I read the title I thought 'they are using lean mince'. All the flavour is in the fat.

Try doing the same recipe but with a higher fat content and reduce it down. It sounds unhealthy but I find it's so tasty that I can eek it out with a lot more veg and it's still very rich and you need less of it.

My recipe is
Onions carrots and celery fried
1 beef 1 pork mince well browned
Garlic and any other veg I want to use up
2 tins tomatoes
Half bottle of red
Ends of one or two parmesan instead of chucking them
Couple beef stock cubes
Loads of worcester sauce
Couple handfuls of orange lentils to bulk it out

Simmer very low for 2- 3 hours

It's one of the few recipes that everyone in our house likes and have never got sick of

Paprika. Tons of it.

Stock, half a teaspoon English mustard, splash of Balsamic, Worcestershire sauce and to finish if a glug of milk 😉

I add mushrooms and chilli flakes

I used some cut up bacon which I fry with the garlic and add a cheap jar or roasted peppers (draining the oil first). Really adds some favour.

ketchup In bolonese yes yes yes fuck the Italians .

Keep the ends from parmesan in the freezer. When making a ragu chuck in one of the parmesan ends. Really makes a difference