There are quick midweek meat sauces—and then there is a properly developed Bolognaise.
This is not a rushed, 20-minute version. It is a rich, deeply flavoured sauce made with beef mince, onions, garlic, Italian herbs, tomatoes and Bone Roasters Veal Stock. The extended cooking time allows everything to soften, combine and develop into the sort of Bolognaise that tastes as though it has been simmering away in an Italian kitchen all day.
Using the Ninja 11-in-1 dramatically reduces the traditional stovetop cooking time, while still giving us the depth of flavour we are looking for. Better still, this is a generous batch that can be divided, frozen and turned into several different meals.
It is a perfect example of what our “What Can You Do with a Pound of Mince?” series is all about: taking an affordable everyday ingredient and using a few good techniques to create something far more memorable.
Appliance: Ninja Foodi 11-in-1 Multi-Cooker
Preparation time: Approximately 15 minutes
Cooking time: Approximately 2½ hours
Resting time: Ideally 24–48 hours
Makes: One generous batch
Bolognese sauce becomes even better when it is allowed to rest.
For the best result, cool the sauce promptly, cover and refrigerate it for 24–48 hours before reheating and serving. During this time, the flavours continue to settle, deepen and combine.
This makes Bolognaise an ideal make-ahead meal. Cook it when you have time, then enjoy an even better result a day or two later.
Tomatoes and tomato paste can sometimes introduce a sharp, acidic or slightly bitter flavour to a sauce.
The tablespoon of brown sugar is not intended to make the Bolognese sweet. It simply softens the acidity and bitterness, helping create a smoother, rounder and more balanced finished sauce.
Adding the tomato paste after pressure cooking gives us greater control over the final texture.
Once the lid is removed, the tomato paste helps enrich, thicken and intensify the sauce as it reduces on Sauté mode.
Browning the onions and mince is an important part of building flavour.
Those caramelised pieces on the bottom of the cooking pot contain a great deal of flavour. Adding the veal stock and scraping the base releases them back into the sauce rather than leaving them behind.
This recipe can also be prepared in a heavy-based saucepan or casserole dish.
Follow the same process of browning the onions, garlic, herbs and beef mince. Add the veal stock, crushed tomatoes, brown sugar and bay leaves, then bring the sauce to a gentle simmer.
Cook over very low heat for approximately 8–10 hours, partially covered. Stir regularly and add a little extra water or stock during cooking if the sauce begins to become too thick.
Add the tomato paste toward the end of cooking and continue simmering until the sauce has reached the desired consistency.
The long, gentle cooking time is what allows a traditional stovetop Bolognaise to develop its full flavour.
Once you have a batch of Bolognese in the refrigerator or freezer, you already have the foundation for several different meals.
Use it to make:
Divide the cooled sauce into meal-sized portions before freezing so you can defrost only what you need.
The important lesson in this recipe is that flavour does not come from one ingredient alone.
It is built gradually:
Each stage adds something to the final result.
This is the difference between simply combining ingredients and deliberately building a sauce.
Bolognese is one of those recipes almost every household makes, but it is also one of the dishes that is most often rushed.
Giving the ingredients enough time to cook, reduce and rest transforms a basic mince and tomato sauce into something rich, rounded and deeply satisfying.
Make a generous batch, enjoy some now and place the rest in the freezer. One pound—or 500 grams—of mince can become far more than a single bowl of spaghetti when we cook smarter, not fancier.
Chef Ian