As a long-term vegetarian, I’ve made many a lentil ragu/lentil Bolognese-style sauce over the years. It’s taken some time to refine this down into exactly what I want from this sauce. I want it to be thick and unctuous, coating every strand of pasta, and absolutely delicious. Finally, I think I’ve cracked it. In fact, I have it on good authority from literally everyone that I have shared this recipe with, that this is it.

Helpfully, the recipe is also super simple and pretty quick, so perfect for a midweek pasta night. The recipes makes enough for 4 generous portions (to be fair, my only portion size is ‘generous’) and it also freezes well if you want to batch cook.

Right, that’s enough chat, let’s get on with this recipe.

Ingredients

1tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, pureed

105g dry red lentils, rinsed

2tbsp tomato puree

10 black olives, sliced

3 mushrooms, chopped

3 scant teaspoons of vegetable bouillon powder

2tsp mushroom ketchup

1 scant teaspoon Marmite

Freshly ground black pepper

187ml red wine *

500ml passata

200ml water

1tsp maple syrup

Method

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion. Cook over a gentle heat until translucent, then add the garlic, lentils, tomato puree, olives, mushrooms, bouillon powder, mushroom ketchup and Marmite. Give that a good stir and season well with black pepper. Don’t add any salt! After a couple of minutes, add the red wine and let the alcohol evaporate for a few minutes. Finally, add 500ml passata, 200ml water and 1tsp maple syrup. Now you just need to let it cook, giving it a stir every now and again so the lentils don’t stick to the base of the pan. It will take about 25mins to get perfect, with the lentils nice and soft and the sauce rich and thick. Right before serving, stir through the spinach and the ragu is ready to eat!

I use this sauce to dress a long, flat pasta like linguine.

*this weird amount of red wine comes from the fact that I used a mini bottle of wine from the supermarket as I do not drink much alcohol. Feel free to use around this amount if you have a larger bottle in the house, as the exact measurement of 187ml is not set in stone!