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?

Definitely bacon - 25-50% of the weight of your beef mince.
No tomatoes, just tomato puree, and lots of it. I use 2 jars to 500g mince.

It's the fat, fat carries flavour, if you drain it there goes your flavour.

salt and add chopped olives. you can get them in tins mixed with tomato.

Minimum of 4 cloves of garlic,grated cheese in at the end

You need salt. Doesn't matter what form it takes, but you need salt, stock or worcestershire sauce, or all three.

Season the shit out of it and simmer for ages.

Oh and milk. I use milk and something chicken livers, but the chicken livers one is hard core.

Add a coupon of of oxo at the mince stage.

Agree about the not draining fat. Don't do it. Modern mince isn't that high in fat these days and fat isn't the enemy.

I add

garlic
beef stock
nutmeg
mushrooms
passata
tomato paste

I made this last night and tasted great. With all the other ingredients you mentioned too of course

Celery salt and balsamic vinegar

Make sure you are really cooking the onions and garlic for long enough, to get the sweet deliciousness out of them at the frying stage.

also consider using a quality mince - you could try half beef and half pork for a richer flavour x

I've not read the full thread so this will have been said probably but...
Use passata as well as chopped tomatoes.
Add sugar when using passata/chopped tomatoes. A teaspoon or two.

I have noticed sometimes that if I use too many herbs (and I'm sorry, I can't remember exactly which ones!) that they seem to cancel each other out somehow, leaving food tasting bland.
For pasta sauce I tend to only stick to 2 herbs in each now - and for my version of bolognaise ragu (It's not a real bolognaise because no tomato) I only use oregano and basil, plus of course garlic and salt.
I agree that draining off the fat isn't going to be helping you though - many of the flavour aspects, especially of the herbs, are fat soluble so you're chucking them away!

cook it for a long time, I usually cook mine for about 90 minutes minimum

Absolutely no Boxo in Bolognese - Italians would faint in horror.

It needs to be in for at least an hour and a half - that’s key to good flavour.

I use fennel seeds in mine.

This is what I would change about what you are doing - don't fry the mince with the vegetables. Cook the mince first - and make sure it is brown not grey. I do this in a frying pan and then get all of the lovely brown bits (aka flavour) out by adding a half glass of red wine and simmering on a high heat, scraping it all into the sauce. Pour over the mince.

Now in a large heavy saucepan fry the carrot, onion and ideally a stick of celery, all chopped very fine. After about 10 minutes on a medium heat (so cooked but not brown) add the garlic and cook for another 10 minutes until sweet and very soft.

Chuck in the tomatoes and simmer down for a bit, then add the mince, wine gloop and anything else you want in the way of a bit of thyme, oregano, bay leaf. Simmer for a couple of hours.

Also, ingredients matter in this. Good quality beef, decent tin of tomatoes will be worth the expense.

Xpost, snap.

No fat, no flavour.

I use Hugh FW's recipe and it's game changing.

you need to cook it for ages also.

I use the sauce that this woman makes for Lasagna and use it for spaghetti it's delicious. thestayathomechef.com/amazing-lasagna-recipe/?fbclid=IwAR1RQaq0vvhonSuQKhDpKiR32gCOk8OeOvnZ5zXnpC-lcCwQGl7f5NbTDb4

Bacon. Red wine. Fresh basil. That's all you need really.

What others have said. Stock cube, red wine, LOTS of garlic, LOTS of seasoning, sprinkle of paprika powder and chilli powder, Worcester sauce. Melt cheese inside the bolognese when simmering and add more on top when serving.

It definitely doesn’t all cook off. I had a sauce with wine in while taking antibiotics that you shouldn’t drink with and I’ve never been so ill in my life. I thought I was going to have to ring 111 it was awful. Apparently it only takes a very small amount for you to react though.

Try a Ragu. Fry off cubed pancetta and set aside and then fry 50/50 pork and beef mince in the pancetta fat - make sure you brown it well before draining. Optional is liquidised raw chicken livers mixed in the with the mince before frying - gives a lovely richness. Then fry finely chopped onions and red peppers with minced garlic until slightly softened. Mix the mince mixture with the pancetta and onion mixture and stir in a small jar of sun dried tomato paste, mixing well. I use a mix of Sainsburys bottled TDF Butternut Squash and Sage sauce and their bottled Italian Passata a rather than tinned tomatoes. Stir in with a good glug of red wine and bring to a simmer. Cook it on low for about an hour and season at the end. I use freshly ground black pepper and light soy sauce to season to taste and stir in some fresh torn basil leaves at the end.