A delicious twist on a family food favourite, this Easy Pork Mince Bolognese is packed full of flavour and can be on the table in just 25 minutes. If you love pork and bolognese, you’re going to love this Easy Peasy Pork Bolognese!
Can you make Bolognese with pork mince?
Absolutely you can! Pork goes incredibly well with all the traditional Bolognese flavours. In fact, truth be told, I think I actually prefer pork mince Bolognese!
How to make Pork Mince Bolognese
And Pork Mince Bolognese is super easy to make!
All you need to do is gently fry diced onions, carrots and celery in a little olive oil, then turn the heat up and add the pork mince, frying until lightly browned.
Turn the heat back down again and stir in the garlic. Then add the chopped tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato puree, oregano, soy sauce and black pepper.
Simmer for 10 minutes, then serve on top of spaghetti (or any pasta shape you like!)
Easy peasy!
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
What to serve with pork bolognese
I like to serve this Easy Peasy Pork Bolognese with spaghetti – either regular white spaghetti or wholewheat spaghetti. Alternatively, it also works well with other pasta shapes, such as fusilli or penne.
You could also add a simple salad and/or garlic bread if you want to add extra sides.
What to drink with pork bolognese
Pork Bolognese is very wine friendly, and goes equally well with red and white wines.
If you prefer red, go for something like Chianti or Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.
If white’s more your thing then Sauvignon Blanc also goes surprisingly well!
Make it your own!
This Easy Pork Bolognese is very easy to adapt. For example, you could:
- Use chopped red pepper and mushrooms instead of the diced carrots and celery
- Add in some diced bacon / lardons right before you brown the pork mince
- Add a splash of red or white wine in just before you add the tomatoes
- Use passata instead of chopped tomatoes
- Use beef stock instead of chicken stock
- Use Worcestershire sauce instead of soy sauce
- Use dried Italian herbs instead of dried oregano
Love Bolognese? Try these variations!
I am a huge Bolognese fan. If you are too, then you might want to try these variations:
- Easy Beef Mince Bolognese
- Easy Turkey Mince Bolognese
- Easy Lamb Mince Bolognese
- Fusilli Bolognese
- Easy Quorn Bolognese (Vegetarian)
- Easy Lentil Bolognese (Vegan)
What to do with leftover pork bolognese
Pork bolognese is one of those many, many recipes that actually tastes BETTER the next day, so a great make ahead option!
(I should add, I mean the bolognese sauce only, not the spaghetti! I would always recommend you cook the spaghetti right before you need it.)
Put any leftover (or ‘made ahead’) bolognese sauce in a lidded container and place in the fridge, where it will keep for up to 3 days.
To reheat, simply tip the sauce into a saucepan with a splash of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until piping hot all the way through.
Alternatively reheat this bolognese sauce in the microwave until piping hot all the way through.
Can you freeze pork bolognese?
I don’t recommend you freeze the spaghetti – cook that fresh! But yes, the pork bolognese sauce freezes very well. In fact, I recommend you make double the quantity and freeze half for some time in the future when you are super short on time, but still want to eat well!
Simply put the cooked and cooled bolognese sauce into a lidded container and place it in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
Easy Pork Mince Bolognese
Ingredients
- 280 g spaghetti
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion very finely diced (See Note 1)
- 1 small carrot very finely diced (See Note 1)
- 1 stick celery very finely diced (See Note 1)
- 500 g pork mince
- 2 cloves garlic grated or crushed
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes (Ideally one of the better quality brands, like Cirio or Napolina)
- 200 ml chicken stock (from a cube is fine – I use 1 Kallo organic chicken stock cube)
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or Worcestershire sauce, if you prefer)
- Black pepper to taste (See Note 2)
- Grated parmesan or cheddar to serve (optional)
- Fresh basil leaves as a garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions / your own preferences. Drain when cooked.
- Meanwhile, place the olive oil, onions, carrots and celery in a large frying pan, with a lid on, over a low heat for 3 minutes, until softened but not brown. Stir occasionally.
- Turn the heat up and add the pork mince, break up with a spatula and fry for 3 minutes, until lightly browned, stirring regularly.
- Turn the heat back down again and stir in the garlic. Fry for 1 minute, taking care not to burn the garlic.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato puree, oregano, soy sauce and black pepper. (See Note 3.) Stir everything together and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Divide the spaghetti between 4 plates, top with the bolognese sauce and sprinkle over the grated cheese.
- Garnish with fresh basil leaves.
Notes
- Personally I prefer very finely diced onions, carrots and celery in this recipe (this is called a soffritto in Italian). But if you prefer you veggies chunkier, by all means cut them less finely. Alternatively, if you want to make life even easier for yourself, you can sometimes find ready chopped soffritto mix in the supermarket freezer section.
- I only add black pepper, not salt, to this recipe as I feel the stock cube plus the soy sauce makes this salty enough, but feel free to add salt at this point too, if you wish.
- Suitable for freezing. (Bolognese sauce only.)
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Denise says
Very good, easy to make and fast. It was a nice change with pasta.
Eb Gargano says
Aw yay – I am so happy to hear you liked it so much! Thank you for this lovely review 😀