BEST EVER Bolognese Sauce
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Look no further for the richest, tastiest, most flavorful bolognese sauce recipe EVER! Layers and layers of FLAVOR mingle together to create a depth that will make your taste buds sing!
The Ultimate Homemade Bolognese Sauce
Bolognese is one of the most popular Italian dishes worldwide and for good reason – it’s delicious and makes for some of the best comfort food ever!
Traditionally bolognese sauce uses three meats (beef, veal and pork) and pancetta (or bacon) to achieve the flavor that has made it so famous. The pork adds sweetness to the sauce, the veal adds finesse, and the pancetta…well, we all know what bacon does. It’s like manna from heaven. The long, slow cooking time results in melt-in-your-mouth tenderness and a depth of flavor that will satisfy your tummy and your soul.
We’re taking traditional bolognese basics and then adding a few twists to bump up the flavor even further: Dried porcini mushrooms are the ultimate secret ingredient for adding incredible FLAVOR and umami elements to sauces, gravies, soups and stews. Make your best effort to source them. For additional flavor I like to use ground pork sausage in place of ground pork. And in addition to the traditionally used white wine we’re adding a bit of red as well for a more robust flavor. We’re confident you’re going to love the depth and flavor that these twists contribute to your bolognese sauce.
Tips for Making the BEST Bolognese Sauce
The key to a good bolognese is to not cut corners when it comes to the length of the cooking time and the quality of ingredients.
- Low and Slow Cooking: This is crucial for breaking down the food and releasing the flavors of each ingredient. A bolognese that’s cooked for 30 minutes will taste vastly different than the bolognese that has simmered for 3 hours. So don’t rush it!
- Use Quality Tomatoes: Another key element is to use the best quality ingredients. For the best flavor use tomatoes that are imported from Italy; they are much sweeter and more flavorful. They can be purchased at most well-stocked grocery stores. For those in the U.S., World Market also carries them. And of course you can purchase them online. I like the Mutti brand– it’s a smooth puree that’s ready to go. I also like Strianese San Marzano tomatoes which are stewed and traditionally they’re crushed by hand and then added to the bolognese. They’re very pricy online and you can find them much cheaper in some well-stocked grocery stores including World Market.
- Use Dried Porcini Mushrooms: This has become my favorite “secret ingredient” for the past decade. Grind them up with a coffee/spice grinder, a pestle and mortar, or pound them in ziplock bag with a blunt object, and add them to your sauces, gravies, soups and stews for an incredible depth of flavor and umami notes. You will be blown away by what these do for the flavor of your food! You can find them in many well-stocked grocery stores as well as online. Porcini mushrooms have by far the most flavor but if you cannot find them you can use a different variety of dried mushroom (in dried form they have a more concentrated flavor).
- Quality Fresh Meats: Another key to achieving the best flavored sauce is to use the highest quality of meat you can find. You only need 1/2 pound of each kind and it’s worth it to splurge for quality.
- Quality Cheese: Italy produces more than 300 varieties of cheese – three hundred! It’s mind-blowing. To finish off your bolognese use a quality aged Italian grating cheese. The most popular are Asiago, Grana Padano, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano. That finishing touch will take your bolognese to a whole new level.
Bolognese Sauce Recipe
Let’s get started!
Very finely chop the carrots, celery, onions and garlic. You don’t want large chunks of it in the sauce. You want them to blend in, almost unnoticeably.
In a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, fry the bacon until done.
Add all chopped vegetables (don’t drain that bacon grease!) along with the butter and cook until softened, 5-7 minutes.
Add the beef, veal and sausage/pork and cook until the pink is gone, another 5 minutes.
Add the milk, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
Add the veal/beef consommé or broth and the white and red wine.
Add the tomato puree or crushed tomatoes. Add the ground porcini, salt, pepper, nutmeg, sage, rosemary and bay leaf.
Bring the sauce to a boil, reduce to low, cover and simmer for 2 hours. The sauce will thicken further than the picture below over the course of the two hours. If the sauce is still a little too runny, remove the lid and simmer another 30 minutes. Stir in the chopped fresh parsley and add salt and pepper to taste.
Serving Recommendations
Serve the bolognese sauce over pasta (fresh pasta is best), with some freshly grated aged Italian cheese.
Pair it with some good crusty bread, garlic bread or olive rosemary focaccia, and a leafy green salad, Caprese salad or Caesar salad. You can also serve it with a roasted, steamed or sauteed vegetable of your choice. A nice addition to include at the table is an antipasto platter that features things like marinated olives, pickled asparagus, pickled pepperoncini peppers and giardiniera.
Can You Freeze Bolognese Sauce?
Yes! Bolognese sauce freezes well and can be used in any pasta dish, including lasagna. You can make it in bulk and freeze it in containers so you always have some on hand when you need it.
For more traditional Italian recipes be sure to try my:
- Osso Buco
- Chicken Piccata
- Chicken Marsala
- Marinara
- Beef Ragu
- Lamb Ragu
- Beef Braciole
- Capicola
- Minestrone Soup
- Chicken Bolognese
- Tuscan White Bean and Sausage Soup
- Porchetta
- Olive Rosemary ocaccia
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BEST EVER Bolognese Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 ounces pancetta or bacon , diced
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium yellow onion , very finely chopped
- 1 large carrot , very finely chopped
- 1 large celery rib , very finely chopped
- 2 large cloves garlic , minced
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1/2 pound ground veal (can substitute beef or pork sausage)
- 1/2 pound ground Italian pork sausage (can use plain ground pork but I highly recommend sausage for flavor)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup beef or veal consommé or broth
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup dry red wine
- 28 ounces jar or can or quality imported Italian tomato puree , or imported Italian stewed tomatoes crushed by hand
- 2 tablespoons ground dried porcini mushrooms (strongly recommend for incredible flavor)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel seed
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage (or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Fry the bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until done (don't drain the bacon grease). Add the butter and the onion, carrot, celery and garlic and cook until softened, 5-7 minutes. Add the ground beef, veal, sausage and salt and cook until no pink remains. Add the milk, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
- Add the consommé or broth, white and red wine, tomatoes and all remaining ingredients except for the parsley. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Uncover and continue simmering on very low for another 2 hours. If the bolognese is too runny, uncover and simmer another 30 minutes or until sufficiently thickened. Stir in the parsley and simmer for another minute.Serve over pasta (fresh is best) with some freshly grated aged Italian cheese.Note: This sauce freezes well and can be used in any pasta dish, including lasagna.
Nutrition
First published on The Daring Gourmet November 7, 2014
Hi, I’m Kimberly Killebrew and welcome to Daring Gourmet where you'll find delicious originals, revitalized classics, and simply downright good eats from around the world! Originally from Germany, later raised in England, world-traveled, and now living in the U.S., from my globally-influenced kitchen I invite you to tour the world through your taste buds!
Kimberly, I am new to your blog and am loving it!! I have to agree with all of your comments on the authenticity of this bolognese recipe. I have been using the bolognese recipe of the undisputed Queen of Italian Cooking, the late Marcella Hazan, for years. Yours is very similar, including the use of both butter and milk. It is fabulous beyond belief. Marcella was very passionate about her bolognese and quite bossy about it’s proper preparation, as evidenced by her rather liberal use of the word “must”:
“The meat must be sauteed just barely long enough to lose its raw colour. It must not brown or it will lose its delicacy.
It must be cooked in milk before the tomatoes are added. This keeps the meat creamier and sweeter tasting.
It must cook at the merest simmer for a long, long time. The minimum is 3½ hours; 5 is better.”
I am anxious to try your version with the addition of the spices. Thanks!
Thank you so much, Beth, and welcome! I don’t think I’ve looked at Marcella Hazan’s version specifically but I had to laugh out loud at all the “must” language. I love how passionate and emphatic Italians are about their cooking. :) There are hundreds of variations of this traditional, age-old recipe, and all of them are pretty similar. And if you deviate from tradition (heaven forbid!) an outcry results :) As I noted in the post, I made a few tweaks that might elicit a minor heart attack from the most passionate Italian cooks, but nothing earth-shattering. The important thing is that the end result tastes delicious – and it does!
Allora, I have to apologize for the “pancetta”-part. I simply didn’t see you noting that part.
The fact that the original recipe allows for butter baffles me – since you just won’t find butter too easily in Italian stores. It’s way more common to use a good olive oil, directly from the farmer in your neighborhood – just with all Italian dishes. So even though it might be in the recipe from back then, the reality in Italy looks different (butter is more expensive and therefore rarely used whereas every little town has several olive oil farmers). We even eat bread with olive oil and salt and herbs as a snack – no butter on bread.
I do insist, though, that mixing red and white wine is very, very, very not original. White meat – white wine. Red meat – red wine.
If you use veal for the bolognese, white wine. Beef – red wine.
It’s even suggested you use the same wine for cooking as the one you’re serving with the dish. Do you mix them on your table, too?
I’m pretty sure that there is no recipe in the good French, Italian, Greek or Spanish (countries, where good wine comes from) cuisine that mix good wine – even mixing red with another red you’d be called a ciabbatino or dilettante.
That part I’ll give you, and you’ll notice I make note of that earlier in my recipe post as well – the combining of wines is a twist on an otherwise thoroughly “classic” recipe, butter included.
Alfredo Viazzi used a combo of butter and olive oil in many of his recipes, including bolognese sauce. His 1979 cookbook, Alfredo Viazzi’s Italian Cooking, remains one of my all time favorites.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/05/24/italian-according-to-alfredo/113731b5-475d-46d2-a255-90e83d214cf9/
Thanks, J.J. I agree with Viazzi that you can’t be dogmatic about traditional recipes – if there’s a substitute or a change in method that will enhance a dish, then do it.
I am originally from Italy and the fact that you call it “Classic” italian Bolognese is a sacrilege!
Never ever ever you use dairy products in a Bolognese, neither milk nor butter! never!!!
Also why would you mix white and red wine? in “The” Classic italian bolognese, you only use red wine.
And last, but not least, IF you must use bacon (which isn’t found too often in the classical recipe), use pancetta, which is a lot more lardy than the usual one but gives more flavor to the dish.
I don’t doubt that your variation tastes delicious! But why call it Classic?!
Hello! I appreciate your passionate defense of Italian food – that’s a quality I respect. But before we start screaming blasphemy and sacrilege, let’s set a couple of things straight. First of all, to say that dairy products are never used in a bolognese is simply false. In fact, the recipe for “authentic” ragù alla bolognese that’s registered with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce and submitted by the Italian Academy of Cuisine (an organization dedicated to preserving the culinary heritage of Italy) uses butter and milk! Even the earliest documented recipe of bolognese from the late 18th century uses butter and cream. Secondly, both of these recipes I have referred to use pancetta. So yes, dairy and pancetta both traditionally belong in bolognese. Secondly, you’ll note that I list pancetta first in the recipe with bacon as a suitable alternative for those who can’t access pancetta. Thirdly, the aforementioned Italian Academy of Cuisine states that both red or white wine may be used and there are many traditional versions that use white wine. And so my friend, you can take a deep breath and relax knowing no sacrilege has been committed after all.
Actually, tomatoes were not orriginally used as well. I have spoken with italian citizens and chef’s that would call the tomatoes blasphemous. There is also a great show called oyaly unpacked that closely investigates all this. And it is served over egg tagliatelle. In blogna they only call it ragut. Bolognese as we know it does not actually exist in bologna. Bolognese is an american italian dish, not italian. Your dish does look yummy though. This is actually classic Bolognese. However,just classic american bolognese not authentic ragu from bologna.
well said ! I was laughing my ass off @ that reply .! thank you I’m making this rite now and I’m super excited cheers!
Awesome, Scoey – happy cooking and buon appetito!
I arrived to this web site because I was looking for a recipe for the Chinese Hoisin sauce and I must say that your recipe is a lot better explained than many others that I found on chinese sites. I like the way you break recipes down to every basic ingredient.
Since I’m Italian and I found italian recipes here as well, I took a look just out of curiosity.
Bolognese sauce or ragù alla bolognese (as we call it) is a very well known recipe in Italy, everybody knows it and everybody adds little variations to it, so it’s hard to define a “classic” one.
I would never put milk in it, but I checked the Italian Accademy of Cuisine web site and you are right, there’s milk in the classic recipe. Fair play to you.
However, you would never use garlic or mushrooms or fennel seeds, because it would not be bolognese anymore. Moreover I think the spices and herbs in your recipe are too many. Many of the most successfull Italian recipes are simple and just rely on the quality of the ingredients used; pesto sauce is a great example, it’s just basil, garlic, olive oil and parmesan, but it’s so hard to get it right!
I also see no point in mixing white and red wine, I would simply use red.
Your recipe looks delicious, but it’s definitely an American version.
Yay!! I just cooked this wonderful sauce-with all suggested ingrediences,plus some of my own- absolutely gorges.In fact i have saved copy of this on my hard copy; this one is, without a doubt, best .!!
Wonderful, Ivanka, I’m so glad you enjoyed it, thank you!
No, no, I thank you for this incredible dish!! Looking forward to cook more, with you!
Very DELICIOUS! Have you ever made Ravioli with Bolognese filling? Thats very tasty too :-) Warmly, Bridget
Thank you, Bridget, and the ravioli with bolognese filling sounds wonderful!
I tried this recipe this past Sunday and it turned out wonderful! I was a little concerned when i added the beef consomme and the wines – it seemed like too much liquid but after two hours of simmering and about 20 minutes with the lid off it thickened up nicely.
Wonderful, I’m thrilled to hear you enjoyed it, Kim! Yes, the liquid evaporates quite a bit during the cooking process and it becomes even thicker once it cools down. Thanks so much for your feedback, Kim, I really appreciate it!
I concur with your assessment of Italian tomatoes. They’re a must if you really want that Italian taste. And serving a bolognese with a good aged Italian cheese is a must, they go hand in hand. This looks like an excellent recipe.
I agree, Nathan, and thank you!
Ooooh, that sauce looks so rich and flavorful, yum! I’ve had some really great bolognese dishes in Italian restaurants but have never been able to replicate them at home. I can’t wait to try this, thank you!
Thanks, Cathy! You’ll love this – just remember to not cut corners and use the best ingredients. Happy cooking!
This looks absolutely amazing! I want to dive right into that plate of pasta! :) Will definitely be making this. Thanks also for all the great information on the ingredients and products you used.
Thanks so much, Cori and you’re very welcome! Enjoy!