This Spaghetti Bolognese is a firm family favourite and crowd-pleaser in my house. A rich delicious homemade bolognese made from real food. This spaghetti bolognese is nutritious, delicious and filling. If you’ve been using jar sauces to make spag bol, then it’s time to change to make your own bolognese and you won’t ever look back!
Fussy eaters? No problem, dice, grate or chop all those veggies into tiny pieces and they will add so much flavour and nutritional goodness without fussy eaters even knowing they are there!
This recipe is a great recipe for batch-cooking and is freezer-friendly. It makes a great base recipe that can be used as bolognese, pasta bake, mince and potato bake and then if add a few extra ingredients and you’ve switched it into cannelloni, chilli, enchiladas, or one of the most popular GD UK subscription recipes; Elizabeth’s Lasagne.
Spaghetti Bolognese
Ingredients
- 500 grams beef mince (or a mixture of pork and beef mince)
- 1 tsp olive oil for cooking
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 whole green pepper finely chopped
- 1 whole red pepper finely chopped
- 1 large courgette grated
- 1 stick celery finely chopped
- 500 grams tomato passata
- 400 grams tinned chopped tomatoes
- 3 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tbsp Worcester sauce
- 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
- 1 beef stock cube
- 1 good pinch salt and ground black pepper for seasoning
Instructions
- Chop the onion, peppers and celery. For a smoother sauce, dice finely or keep pieces larger for a chunkier texture
- Crush or chop the garlic cloves so that they are minced finely
- Grate the courgette and set aside
- Soften the onion and garlic in a frying pan with some oil on a low heat
- Turn the heat up to a medium heat and add the beef/Quorn mince
- Once the mince has browned, add the courgette, peppers and celery, mixing them with the other ingredients until they start to soften
- Pour in the tin of tomatoes and passata and stir well
- Add the tomato purée, Worcester sauce, mixed herbs, stock cube and seasoning to taste. Please note, you do NOT need to make stock with the stock cube, it can be added straight into the pan by crumbling in
- Cover the pan, and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes
- Serve with a small amount (40g dried weight) of wholewheat spaghetti or as much courgetti as you like (or you could mix courgetti and wholewheat spaghetti together). Garnish with fresh basil and plenty of grated cheese
For slow cooking
- Add all ingredients into the slow cooker, place on the lid then cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours