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?

Nooooo!!!

I do love a traditional MN bolognese/ragu thread. I feel positively cosy

Salt meat before cooking and don't scrape off the fat. Tastiest cut of meat for Bolognese has to be a lovely bit of lamb neck. Cook for hours til it melts in the mouth

I agree with this.

I do all the prep and frying on the hob and then put in the oven on a low heat for at least 2 hours. It's lovely.

I slow cook the fresh tomatoes garlic and onions first before I cook the meat, keep the fat!! add the meat to the tomatoes , a fuck ton of oregano and thyme, Worcester sauce and then simmer that for about an hour.

Why are you adding seasoning at the end?
Season your meat!!! cook it with the garlic and add beef stock cube.

Teaspoon of marmite and a good chug of tomato ketchup.

spoonful of sugar will sweeten it up and bring out the flavours

Because if you season meat before cooking it, you draw out the moisture so it doesn’t sear, it boils, and the end result is tough. Brown it first and then season at the end.

No, no, noooooo !!! Sun dried tomato paste or a jar of sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and liquidised.

If you have a food processor, buy good braising steak and chop it finely in the processor - needs longer cooking than mince though.

If it's lean mince, why are you draining the fat off?

Use good olive oil, I'd probably double the amount of herbs you use and at least add some salt and pepper. And red wine...

And leave to cook for at least a few hours to let it all infuse.

Glad to see people using this tip - it really does make a difference doesn’t it ? The ‘umami’ savoury flavour it adds is lovely. I always add a Parmesan end to beef stew too - same deeply savoury result.

Yes it does. Distillation process.

Works with beef chilli too - a good 70-80% cocoa content really brings out the flavours - I think they call it a Mole sauce in South America.

As others have already mentioned- bolognese debates come up on mumsnet all the time. Just google a proper bolognese recipe- it has no relation to what most people in the UK make as a rugu. My Italian nonna would use a mix of beef and pork and WHITE WINE, never red. A good ragu also takes time- base is onions, celery, carrot, garlic cooked slowly and add a proper amount of herbs and pepper to taste.

Milk to browned mince
Stock cube crumbled in (no water)
Bay leaves
A bit of sugar

And if still missing that something after a couple of hours add some anchovies and leave in the oven or on the hob for another hour

If using 1 tin of chopped tomatoes I use 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1 teaspoon of black pepper and a bit of salt about 1/3 teaspoon. I use lean mince fry in pan and keep the fat. Use about 1 heaped tablespoon of tomato purée. Simmer for about 45 minutes. I sometimes add 1/2 teaspoon of Garam masala gives a nice flavour

I stir in a jar of red pepper pesto 😋

Beef knor cube, soy sauce

A bite of light entertainment.

Pasta Bolognese y

I fry finely chopped bacon or chorizo sausage with chopped onion , carrot etc. Add garlic and large amount of tomato puree. Add mince or lentils/beans, fry off. Add tinned tomato, same volume of water. Add sugar, wostershire sauce, various herbs and crumble in a couple of ham stock cubes. Cook very low for 2-3 hours.

I add a half teaspoon of mixed spice to initial fry up of onions, a teaspoon of honey when its all assembled, and often put some pancetta cubes in to start with. Agree no tomato sauce but a glug of HP is great!

I try onions in oil and butter plus garlic and then add peppers (I use the frozen ones ) and lastly add mushrooms. Add meat and brown though sometimes if fat content is high fry separately and drain fat off but leaving some. Then add tinned chopped tomatoes and a small tin tomato puree. I also add some sea salt black pepper Worcester sauce and some pesto. If there is red wine available also add that. A chef told DH once to add red wine a few minutes before it's ready to make it more tasty.

Though lately I have been using meatballs instead of mince. Dh for some reason prefers this not sure why but I'm not bothered either way.