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This Lamb Bolognese simmers on the stove for an hour, marrying all the delicious flavors of carrot, onion, anchovy and lamb together. Ladle it over your favorite pasta for an amazing dinner, and if you have leftovers, good news – this lamb bolognese freezes easily! Serve it with a the best caesar salad or this endive salad with orange and walnuts.
This lamb bolognese is SO delicious. It’s my favorite framework for any bolognese. The carrots give it a hint of sweetness, the red pepper gives it a lovely hint of spice and the lamb adds a delicious earthiness. My ideal spring lunch would consist of a big bowl of this, a batch of my strawberry margaritas and my mini carrot cake with brown butter cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients for Lamb Bolognese
- Carrot – I love adding carrot to bolognese. It adds a touch of sweetness that helps balance the acidity from the tomatoes.
- Onion and garlic – These add a nice baseline for flavor. This combo is the best duo in cooking. I like to measure garlic by what my heart tells me. For this recipe it told me 6 garlic cloves were an ample amount—if you like, use less. I think 3 would be sufficient, too.
- Ground lamb – My favorite brand is this one pictures: Atkins Ranch. It’s a New Zealand brand that’s 100 percent grass-fed.
- Tomato Paste – This adds a richness and thickness to the bolognese that is much needed.
- Anchovy fillets – This ingredient is 100% optional. If you don’t have it, skip it. I love to add a few anchovy fillets because they add a bit of savoriness, and they don’t taste overtly anchovy-like or fishy.
- Crushed Tomatoes – You could always use whole tomatoes or diced, just be sure to blend them up in the blender first.
- Red wine – Gives a lovely depth of flavor. If you don’t drink or don’t like the taste of red wine—leave it out!
For a more detailed ingredient list, please see recipe card below!
The Best Pasta for Lamb Bolognese
I prefer to use a pasta that is technically bronze-die. This means that the actual extruder the pasta goes through is made from real bronze, resulting in a pasta with a rougher texture. This texture makes it so the pasta sauce can really adhere to the pasta.
The best pasta shapes for this bolognese are as follows:
- Spaghetti
- Rigatoni (any tubular pasta will work great)
- Penne
- Pappardelle (pictured)
- Fussili
How to Make Lamb Bolognese
- Mince up your onion, garlic cloves, carrots and anchovy fillets (if using). I like to do this in a food processor for the quickness of it all but if you don’t have one, by all means just simply chop it all up by hand. No biggie!
- Cook the onion, garlic, carrot and anchovy mixture in a few tablespoons of olive oil. I like to add a good baseline of salt at this time too. It encourages the carrots and onions to release some of their water.
- Add the ground lamb. Break it up with a spatula or wooden spoon until it’s in crumbles.
- Next, add the crushed red pepper, tomato paste and pinch of sugar.
- Pour in the red wine and crushed tomatoes. Give it a good mix and bring it to a simmer.
- Cover the pot with a lid and decrease the heat to low.
- Simmer for 1 hour. Check it at the 1 hour mark and give it a taste—it’ll be hot.
- Adjust the salt. I ended up adding about 1 more teaspoon of salt.
- Add butter. This will give it a creamy flavor.
- Cover again and simmer it for an additional 30 minutes.
- Boil pasta until al dente (reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water). Drain the pasta and then transfer the pasta back to the pot. And add a few ladles of the sauce to it. Toss the pasta with the sauce.
- Divide it amongst bowls and top each pasta with a ladle of the bolognese.
How to Freeze Bolognese
Bolognese freezes SO well. I like to let it come to room temperature completely. And then transfer it to an airtight freezer-safe container or bag. I personally like to divide it into containers that are close to the serving size I would use.
This is good in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can thaw it in the fridge overnight.
More Spring Recipes
If you tried this Lamb Bolognese Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Lamb Bolognese
Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion, peeled and minced
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 2 carrots, peeled and minced
- 2 anchovy filets, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- Pinch sugar
- 3/4 cup red wine
- 1 (24-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 pound pasta, of choice
- Parmesan-Reggiano, as garnish
- Basil leaves, as garnish
Instructions
To Make the Lamb Bolognese:
- I like to mince everything up in a food processor. If you don’t have one, mince the onion, garlic cloves and carrots by hand—no biggie!
- Add the onion, garlic cloves, carrots and anchovies to a food processor. Blitz until pureed.
- In a large Dutch oven or medium pot set over medium heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is warm, add the onion/carrot mixture. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt and allow to cook until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring it every so often.
- Then add the ground lamb, breaking it up with your spatula. Mix everything together and cook until the meat has browned, about 5 minutes. Pour in the crushed red pepper and tomato paste and mix; pour in the red wine and scrape the bottom of the pot to lift up any bits.
- Pour in the can of crushed tomatoes. And then fill the can about halfway up with water, swishing it around to pick up any leftover tomato and pour into the pot. Give it a good mix, bring it to a simmer and then immediately drop the heat to low. Cover the pot with a lid and let it cook at a gentle simmer for 1 hour.
- It’ll be super fragrant and delicious at that point. Give it a taste and adjust the salt according to your liking. I added a few more pinches.
- To neutralize the acid, I like to add a few tablespoons of butter. This is totally optional. You can also add a tablespoon of sour cream or creme fraiche, if you have it. Or you could skip this part all together.
To Assemble:
- Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in your pasta and cook until al dente.  Drain the pasta, reserving about 1 cup of pasta water. In the same pot that you cooked the pasta, add a few ladles of the sauce and add the drained pasta. Toss it in the sauce until it’s covered. If needed, add a splash or two of pasta water.
- Divide the pasta amongst bowls. Top it with a ladle of the bolognese and top with fresh basil (if you have it) and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.
To Store the Bolognese:
- This makes delicious leftovers. Bring the entire bolognese to room temperature and then store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days OR you can freeze it for up to 3 months. To thaw, transfer to the fridge overnight and then warm up in a sauté pan or in the microwave.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this tonight and my husband loved it! I didn’t know when to add the sugar, so I left it out. Delicious and so easy to make! Thanks!
If you have a food processor… this recipe is ridiculously easy. Seriously, the hardest part was having to sit there an hour while it smelled AMAZING. I left out anchovies because I didn’t have any and still turned out absolutely incredible and so so flavorful! This is a new all-time-favorite!
amazing–love hearing this! xo
Hey lady!
How much pasta did you use with that sauce? I can’t wait to make this.
~cheers
K
Okay, so it’s not me. I couldn’t find how much pasta to use either.
I have had pounds of ground lamb in the freezer from a friend who has a farm with no idea what to do with it. Searched for recipes and chose yours. What do you know, I had everything in the house with few exceptions. I haven’t made anything this delicious in a while. We all, my 7 year old included, scarfed it down. I’m sharing the recipe with my sis-in-law who lives in Australia where lamb is the go to meat. Thanks for an all around winner. We will make and serve again and again!
Oh yay! Thank you for the feedback. So glad you and your little dude/dudette loved it! xo
Such a wonderful recipe!
This looks delicioussss Adrianna! And where did you purchase those lovely little gold plates?
Thank you! They’re actually vintage–picked ’em up at an old garage sale. 🙂
I just love this sauce so much! Thank you for the recipe. Although I always do this with minced ground beef. Delicious.
Oh yes, what’s with the boyfriend who never says a thing about my wonderful dishes and then, out of nowhere, “I LOVE THIS”. Lol but thats ok.
I really want to try this with some good meatballs. I made meatballs using an old recipe, but I didn’t really like them… I’m going to try one of your recipes next.
Awww! YAY! I love this sauce SO MUCH. Oh and meatballs! These are pretty tasty:
https://www.acozykitchen.com/spaghetti-meatballs/
Haha, for some reason I the first thing that popped into mind when I read your post was ‘Shepherd’s bolognese, like Shepherd’s pie! But whatever it’s called, it looks so delicious. This is my first visit to your blog and I’m loving it so far. Oh, and re Breaking Bad? I can’t bring myself to watch it. I have addicted friends but it looks so… well, confronting and sad. But good at the same time. Maybe I should give it a go!
This is happening tomorrow night! Thank you.
Side note: I’m dying over those bowls.
Oh yay! Let me know how it goes!
Oh my gawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwd yes.