Beef · Slow cooker adaptation

Jamie Oliver Slow Cooker Family Ragu (Slow Cooker)

Jamie Oliver's family ragu in slow cooker form: smoky bacon and rosemary set the base, half-and-half beef and pork mince browned hard for flavour, then four tins of plums and a slow afternoon to reduce.

R By Richard · Adapted from Jamie Oliver · Published 2 June 2026
👁 8.1M source views ❤️ 75.8k source likes
⏱Prep 25 min
🍲Slow cook 7 hr (Low) / 4 hr (High)
🍽Serves 10
Easy Bolognese Recipe | Jamie Oliver

Source video by Jamie Oliver on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules.

Jamie builds the flavour base hard on the hob, rosemary and 100 g smoked bacon to start, then a kilo each of beef and pork mince browned and stirred for 10 minutes until lightly golden. Two onions and four carrots are blitzed and added, given another 10 minutes to deepen, then tomato puree and four tins of plum tomatoes (plus four tins of water to rinse them out) join the pot. From there it moves to the slow cooker for a long low cook in place of Jamie's hob simmer of one and a half to two hours. Designed to be made in a big batch and split for the freezer, easily ten meals' worth.

Slow cooker notes: Jamie's original is a 1.5 to 2 hour hob simmer after a hard sear. The slow cooker version keeps the sear, the bacon-rosemary base, the veg sweat and the tomato puree fry on the hob, these are where the flavour is made. Then the whole lot moves to the slow cooker and replaces the hob simmer with a long low cook. Slow cookers don't reduce much so cracking the lid for the last hour helps the sauce thicken.

Ingredients

Base
  • 1 tbspextra virgin olive oil
  • 2 sprigsfresh rosemary, leaves stripped and chopped
  • 100 gsmoked streaky bacon, sliced
Mince
  • 1 kgminced beef
  • 1 kgminced pork
Veg
  • 2 onionsonions, peeled and chopped to the size of the mince
  • 4 carrotscarrots, chopped to the size of the mince
Sauce
  • 2 heaped tbsptomato puree
  • 4 tins (400 g)tinned plum tomatoes
  • 4 tinswater (to rinse the tins)
  • to tastefine salt, to taste
  • to tastefreshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan on the hob over a high heat. Add the chopped rosemary and the sliced smoked bacon and fry until the bacon is starting to colour.

    ~4 min

  2. Add the beef and pork mince. Break it up and stir for about 10 minutes, first the water comes out of the meat, then it starts to fry again and goes lightly golden. Listen for the sizzle: that means flavour.

    ~10 min

  3. Chop the onions and carrots to roughly the same size as the mince and stir into the pan. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring every minute, to deepen the colour.

    ~10 min

  4. Stir in the two heaped tablespoons of tomato puree and cook for a minute.

    ~1 min

  5. Tip in the four tins of plum tomatoes. Fill each empty tin with water, swirl, and pour into the pan.

    ~2 min

  6. Transfer everything to the slow cooker, season with salt and pepper, and cover.

    ~3 min

  7. Cook on low for 7 hours or high for 4 hours. Stir occasionally to break up the plum tomatoes.

    ~420 min

  8. For the last hour, set the lid slightly off if the sauce is looking loose, slow cookers don't reduce on their own.

    ~60 min

  9. Taste, adjust seasoning, and either serve with pasta or bag up portions for the freezer.

    ~5 min

Frequently asked

Can I use only beef mince?
Yes, Jamie uses half beef and half pork for richness, but all beef works. Brown it just as hard so the colour and the fond go into the sauce.
Why plum tomatoes specifically?
Jamie's rule: the best, sweetest tomatoes always go into tins of plums. Anything less than perfect ends up chopped or as passata. The plums break up naturally in the slow cooker with the odd stir.
How long does it keep?
Once cool, bag up portions and freeze flat, Jamie keeps them for months. Run a frozen bag under the tap, plop into a pan and reheat in minutes.
Extraction notes (transparency): Most quantities are stated in the transcript: 100 g bacon, 1 kg beef mince, 1 kg pork mince, 2 onions, 4 carrots, 2 heaped tbsp tomato puree, 4 tins of plum tomatoes, 1 tbsp olive oil. Rosemary is given as 'two nice big sprigs'. Tin volume not stated, UK standard 400 g tins assumed in the imperial notes. Salt and pepper amounts not stated.