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This hearty lamb bolognese is packed with ground lamb, vegetables, fresh herbs, red wine, and tomatoes. It’s perfect served over pasta!
When I moved to New York, I felt thrown into a world of pasta.
People ate the stuff weekly—heck, most ate it daily. I’m not going to lie; I went a little crazy on the stuff and craved it every single day for a few months.
I would eat it with butter and Parmesan cheese, covered in homemade meat sauce, and even topped with homemade chicken soup. I was basically on the opposite of an Atkins diet.
I’m now back to eating more healthy pasta (maybe once or twice a month), and instead of the usual meat sauce, I busted out the ground lamb for this lamb bolognese!
The best part about ground lamb is its strong flavor, which can withstand rich tomatoes and chewy red wine. It’s pure comfort food.
If you’re feeling fancy, top it off with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. It pairs lovely!
Ingredients needed
- Ground lamb
- Carrots
- Celery
- Onion
- Garlic
- Red wine
- Whole canned tomatoes
- Thyme
- Tomato paste
- Water
- Milk
- Crushed red pepper
How to make lamb bolognese
Bolognese isn’t hard, but it involves time—there is simply no way around that. The good news is that you will be rewarded with a delicious, flavor-packed bolognese. I’m serving mine over pasta, but gnocchi would also be an excellent choice.
- Add the ground lamb to a 12-inch high-sided skillet or a 5-quart Dutch oven. Start browning your meat over medium heat.
- Mix in the chopped carrot, celery, and onion. Saute until the meat is fully browned and the vegetables have just softened.
- Add in the garlic and saute for another minute until fragrant.
- Deglaze the pan with red wine and cook the wine down for 5 minutes.
- Pour in whole tomatoes and juice, and break apart the tomatoes in the pan.
- Stir in 2 cups water, tomato paste, and thyme.
- Simmer for 1-1/2 hours and add another 2 cups of water.
- Continue simmering for another 1-1/2 hours until thick.
- Pour in the milk and crushed red pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes.
- Keep sauce warm and serve over pasta.
My Pro Tips
Lamb Bolognese Recipe Tips
- Ground lamb is found at most big grocery stores, including Walmart.
- Don’t rush the process of simmering the sauce. It feels like a long time to cook down, but this helps the flavors meld and build.
- If you’re a fan of rosemary, add a little finely minced rosemary along with the thyme.
- Make sure you use a dry red wine for the sauce. I like something like a Cabernet Sauvignon.
- You can use crushed or diced if you can’t find whole tomatoes canned in juice. Try using fire-roasted for extra flavor!
- Serve mixed with fresh cooked pasta or gnocchi!
What to serve alongside
Pasta always goes excellent with Cheesy Pesto Garlic Bread or Garlic Herb Dinner Rolls. There is something good about knowing you can wipe the plate clean with a fresh piece of bread.
You can also serve it with roasted vegetables, like Roasted Asparagus, or alongside a leafy salad, like Chopped Kale Caesar Salad.
More pasta recipes
Lamb Bolognese
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 2 large carrots, finely diced
- 2 stalks celery, finely diced
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-1/2 cups dry red wine
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 4 cups water
- ½ cup whole milk
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 pound pasta, cooked (e.g. fettuccine, linguine, etc.)
- Parmesan cheese, for topping
Instructions
- In a 12-inch skillet over medium heat, add ground lamb and start to brown.
- After the mixture is half browned, add in carrots, celery and onions. Cook until the vegetables just start to soften and the meat is fully browned.
- Add in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- To deglaze the pan, pour in red wine and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.
- Cook for about 5 minutes to cook down the red wine.
- Add in tomatoes with their juice and break apart the tomatoes with a spatula.
- Add in thyme, tomato paste and 2 cups water. Mix together until combined and cover the pot with a lid. Simmer on low heat until the mixture has cooked down and is thick.
- Add in remaining 2 cups water, repeat process. This in total should take around 2-3 hours.
- Add in milk and red pepper flakes and cook for 30 minutes until thick and delicious.
- Keep sauce warm while pasta cooks. Serve atop fresh pasta with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My dad too!!! And ow my husband! John will eat it at home but NEVER out – he won’t even go to an Italian restaurant lol! He’s like its just pasta! Sigh! No you adding lamb I think would change his mind…that and a big brittle of red wine beautiful!
I tried this recipe and followed, however, could NOT get it to thicken enough! Didn’t even add the last 2 cups of water. Tried cornstarch with the 1/2 C. milk ad still could not get it to thicken. My husband will eat about anything and said this was borderline acceptable. WOW!!! We love lamb but this had very little flavor, and definitely NO lamb flavor.
I had some ground venison and a few lamb chops laying around so I ground the lamb with some pork and made a TRIPLE batch! Oh my goodness I’m so happy there’ll be leftovers for days!