Pappardelle Bolognese with lot of veggies – Little Big H

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I’m sharing another H favourite with you today. Pappardelle bolognese with lot of hidden veggies.

The rich bolognese sauce will feed about 6 people or freeze what you don’t use for another time. I always have some in my freezer ready to go.

An important step when making this dish is to get a nice golden colour on your veggies before adding anything else. By doing this it adds a lot of flavour to your sauce.

Once your veggies have some colour, everything goes in and simmers away on the stove top for a couple of hours. You can of course eat it after about 30 minutes but leaving it a couple of hours will really develop the flavour.

Don’t want to freeze leftovers? Use leftover bolognese sauce the next day to make:

Individual shepard pot pies – top with sweet potato mash

Pie! – add a cup of frozen peas and top with puff pastry

Use bolognese to make nachos, tacos, or wrap it up in a burrito

Stuffed veggies like capsicums or tomatoes with bolognese

Add to your lasagna, ravioli or gnocchi

Bolognese on toast!

Print Pin Prep Time 10 minutes minutes Total Time 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 large carrots
  • 2 large zucchini
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic ,or use paste
  • 1 large handful parsley ,chopped
  • 1 cup red wine ,or use water
  • 500 grams beef mince ,not super lean
  • 700 ml tomato passata
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 large springs of thyme
  • 2 strips lemon zest
  • pappardelle and parmesan to serve
  • Add oil to a large pot over high heat.Using a food processor, finely chop your carrots, zucchini, celery, and onion individually and add to the pot (alternatively grate or chop).  Cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes or until you have some colour on your veggies.
  • Once your veggies have some nice colour, add garlic and parsley and stir for one minute.  Add wine and scrape the bottom of the pot to lift up any baked on bits. Reduce by half.
  • Add minced beef and cook until starting to brown. Add passata, tomato paste, bay leaves, thyme and 1 cup of water.  Simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Add more water as required. 
  • Add lemon zest 30 minutes before removing from the heat. 
  • Serve with pappardelle and garnish with parmesan. Freeze any leftover for 3 months. 

If you don’t have a food processor, grate your veggies for them to be hidden from fussy children.  Otherwise finely chop. 

If you make my pappardelle Bolognese with lot of veggies, be sure to take a picture and upload to Instagram with the hashtag #littlebigh.  I’d love to see your creation. xx