This quick and easy weekday bolognese recipe is one of my favorite uses for ground beef during the week. The rest of the ingredients are items I normally have on hand and it’s a cheap dinner that can feed an army if needed. If you don’t like cooking with wine, no worries, skip it. Also, in my house growing up we never wasted a drop of crushed tomatoes in the can. Here, after emptying the contents of the crushed tomatoes can into my sauce, I then swirled about a half cup of water into the can to get every last drop. This sauce can easily feed 4-6 people when paired with 12 to 16 ounces of pasta. Add some bread and salad, and this can stretch to feed 6-8 people.
If you have time on your hands and would like a bolognese that simmers for a couple of hours, try my Easy Weekend Bolognese.
Prep Time 5 min
Cook Time 25 min
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 lb 85/15 ground beef
1 tbsp each minced garlic, dried oregano, and dried basil
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp each sugar and salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Preparation
Heat large saucepan over medium-high heat, then add beef to the pot breaking up the meat with the back of a spoon. Cook until no longer pink and barely cooked through, about 10 minutes.
Add in minced garlic, oregano, and basil and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Next, add wine let it cook until liquid reduces by half, 5 minutes.
Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt, and pepper, then when the sauce begins to bubble once again, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Serve this easy weekday bolognese with your favorite pasta. I love penne, rigatoni, and rotelle with this recipe. Roughly 12-16 oz of dried pasta should be plenty for 4 people.