This versatile, rich bolognese sauce recipe is delicious with spaghetti, but can also be transformed into a chilli con carne or cottage pie, see our tips below.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Yields:
4
Prep Time:
15 mins
Cook Time:
40 mins
Total Time:
55 mins
Cal/Serv:
210
Ingredients
For the bolognese sauce
1Tbsp.
vegetable oil
1
onion, finely chopped
2
garlic cloves, crushed
450g
minced beef
2Tbsp.
tbsp tomato purée
1
beef stock cube
400g
tin chopped tomatoes
2Tbsp.
Worcestershire sauce
125g
button mushrooms, sliced
To serve
500g
spaghetti
Directions
Step 1
Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onion over a medium heat for 15min until golden. Add the garlic and cook for 1min.
Step 2
Add the mince and as it browns, break up the pieces with a wooden spoon. Measure 300ml boiling water into a jug, crumble in a beef stock cube and mix well.
Step 3
Add the tomato purée and stock to the browned mince, cover and bring to the boil. Add tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and mushrooms, and season with salt and black pepper. Turn heat down and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20min.
Step 4
Around 15min before the sauce has finished cooking, bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add 500g spaghetti to the pan and cook according to packet instructions. Drain, reserving a cup of cooking water, then return to the pan. Add the sauce and a splash of cooking water and toss well. Spoon into bowls and serve.
To serve the sauce as a chilli con carne instead, follow the bolognese recipe but after cooking the onions for 15min, add a deseeded, chopped red pepper and cook for 5min. Add 2tsp mild chilli powder with the mince. Drain a 400g tin red kidney beans and add to the pan for final 5min of cooking time. Serve with rice, jacket potatoes or in a flour tortilla. Grate over some Cheddar cheese, if you like.
To serve as a cottage pie, add 1tbsp plain flour once meat browns. Omit the tomatoes and add 450ml. Add 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced, with the mushrooms. Spoon the sauce into a 1.7litre ovenproof dish, top with 1kg mashed potato. Cook at 200°C (180°C fan oven) mark 6 for 20–25min.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
