Choosing The Meat At Random
The meat to be used for ragù should be of at least two types: pork and beef, but in this respect, everyone has their own recipe. The difference is the cut of meat chosen, which should not be too lean. So avoid lean ground meat, and instead favor meat with a little fat, which is essential not only to keep it from drying out but to give more flavor as well. If you want to cut the meat yourself, get cuts like chuck or flank steak, as per the Bolognese tradition, or even a skirt steak . The same goes for pork: choose pieces like the thigh which are fatty and tasty.
How Long Can You Keep Bolognese Sauce
Stored in an airtight container, the sauce will keep for three to four days in the refrigerator, and up to six months in the freezer. Its still safe to eat after that, but loses some quality.
I recommend storing it in small-ish containers to give you more choices when reheating. To defrost, place the frozen sauce in a pot, cover, and bring to a boil on top of the stove over low heat.
What Is The Difference Between A Bolognese Sauce And Spaghetti Sauce
These two may look and smell almost the same, but theres quite a difference between the two. Spaghetti sauce or commonly known as Marinara Sauce here in the US is basically sauce in its simplest form tomato sauce, olive oil, garlic and herbs. Bolognese sauce, originating in Bologna, Italy, on the other hand is made with tomato sauce, ground meat, wine and herbs. So that makes Spaghetti/Marinara sauce SAUCY while Bolognese is SAUCY AND MEATY.
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A Classic Italian Pasta Sauce Recipe
Bolognese sauce with pasta is a rich and hearty meal that everyone always agrees on. The comforting meat and tomato sauce, paired with your favorite pasta, is a wholesome and tasty real meal that is full of flavor without being spicy or complex.
Additionally, pasta bolognese is one of the easiest weeknight meals to make! The sauce is simply simmered slowly to tenderize the meat and blend the flavors. Using ground beef, you can pull this together in about one hour, and its more or less hands-free!
But, if youre thinking of pasta sauce sold in a jar at the grocery store, think again! Theres no need to buy pre-made sauces in order to get that rich, authentic taste. Using good-quality canned or boxed tomatoes, you can make your own homemade sauce with ease!
What Is The Difference Between Bolognese And Weeknight Spaghetti Bolognese
You might be wondering what the difference is between this Bolognese Sauce recipe is and my weeknight spaghetti Bolognese recipe?
Well, when Imfeeling a little lazy, I opt for my weeknight Spaghetti Bolognese. When Im feeling a little more gourmet, I optfor this from-scratch homemade Bolognese Sauce.
The ingredients arevery similar except this Bolognese Sauce recipe uses both ground beef andItalian sausage , fresh basil , crushedtomatoes and tomato sauce . It also simmers for 30-45 minutes as opposedto 15. Both are fabulous, and both have areason to belong in your kitchen and in your mouth!
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What’s The Best Type Of Meat For Rag Bolognese
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Bolognese is a meat sauce and the choice of meats is one of the most important elements. At No. 9 Park, Lynch used a combination of coarsely ground veal, pork, and lamb. Why? Veal is rich in gelatin, but low in flavor. It gives the finished sauce a silky, smooth texture. Pork is high in fat, with a moderate amount of flavor. That fat emulsifies nicely into the finished sauce. Finally, lamb has a ton of flavor, but a rather coarse texture. By combining all three, you get a mixture that’s flavorful, fatty, and silkyjust like you want in meatballs or meatloaf.
But I always wondered: Since veal is pretty bland , is there a better way to get both gelatin and flavor into the mix? I knew if I got rid of it, I’d have to find an alternative source of gelatin. This was compounded by the fact that while the original recipe uses gelatin-rich veal bone stock, I pretty much never have anything but chicken stock at home, and I’m not about to spend a day making veal stock for a recipe that takes four hours on its own.
I tried following the exact same recipe, but replacing veal with ground beef and using 100% chicken stock. It was more flavorful, but the sauce lacked its classic silkiness. The solution? Just add that gelatin on its own.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
How Do You Make Bolognese Sauce Thicker
Not too thick to your liking?? Reduction is the most natural and easiest way to thicken up your sauce. So add a few more simmering minutes while stirring occasionally until you achieve your desired thickness.
Another option is start adding 1/4 cup of the pasta water into the sauce as it has the presence of starch from boiling your pasta. Work your way up until you reach your desired consistency.
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Flavoring A Quick Bolognese Sauce
When you change a long cook dish to a quick and easy recipe, the best way to add flavor is to season well. So many people are afraid of salt, but you can learn to use it well.
The key to seasoning is to taste your food. Start with a little salt in the beginning and allow the food to cook before tasting for seasoning.
The reason you should wait is that as the food cooks down, the liquid evaporates, but the salt remains. Taste at the end and season to taste . Seasoning should be done well so no salt will be added at the table.
Using Anchovy Paste & Heavy Cream In Lamb Bolognese
Both of these ingredients are optional but I highly recommend using them.
The anchovy paste is a wonderful umami element to the sauce. Dont worry, nothing tastes fishy at all, it just adds a nice depth of flavor. I use it in this pasta checca recipe for the same reason.
A splash of milk or cream is not something my family typically does when it comes to making bolognese but Ive seen the method on other bolognese recipes and after giving it a try myself, I must say its something worth incorporating into the dish.
You dont have to use dairy milk, I actually used almond milk this time around and it still works well for a slightly creamy component. That said, heavy cream or whole milk are an even more decadent addition.
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What To Serve With Spaghetti Bolognese
For a classic Italian feast, serve this with:
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Garlic Bread or even more indulgent, with Cheesy Garlic Bread . Or, for a more traditional start, real-deal Italian Focaccia.
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Garden Salad with Italian Dressing
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Tiramisu to finish with an Espresso Martini on the side
For a super quick side salad option, make this Rocket Parmesan Salad with Balsamic Dressing. Probably my most made side salad because its literally a 2 minute effortless-no-chop salad!
This recipe is the way I have been making Spaghetti Bolognese for decades . I really love it, and I think the sauce is rich and loaded with flavour, especially for a 30 minute Bolognese recipe.
Though if you have the time, slow cook it for a couple of hours. The flavour develops and the meat becomes so luxuriously tender.
Either way, I hope you love it as much as I do! Nagi xx
The Best Pasta For Bolognese
Theres nothing that says you must serve bolognese over pasta but thats usually the norm.
Tagliatelle or pappardelle are my favorite shapes to pair with the decadent meat sauce but fettuccine will also do.
The wide, flat shape holds the sauce really well and offers a certain unexplainable comfort while twirling around your fork.
To be fair though, bolognese can be paired with any pasta shape you like, wide noodles are just more traditional.
Beyond pasta, Ive paired it with farro in this beef and mushroom bolognese and even sweet potato gnocchi too.
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What Kind Of Pasta Goes With Bolognese Sauce
You will have a hard time finding Spaghetti Bolognese in Italy. I know, shocking, right? Especially when its such a popular dish in Italian-American restaurants.
Well, in Italy, most ragù dishes are served with thicker pasta shapes, as those are more able to hold the chunky sauce. Popular choices are tagliatelle, pappardelle and fettuccine. Its also a must in lasagna!
That being said, I do love pairing bolognese sauce with short tube-like shapes, like penne. I love how the sauce gets captured inside the pasta!
What’s The Best Cooking Liquid For Rag Bolognese
Now we get to the most contentious element in any ragù Bolognese recipe: the liquid. Do we use wine? White or red? What about milk? Does it really keep the meat tender? What about tomatoes?
I can’t answer any of these questions in a valid way, but I can tell you what I’ve found produces the best results, based on years of testing, reading, tasting, and researching.
First off: the wine.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
It makes almost no difference whether you use red or white. So long as you’re starting with something dry and relatively oak-free, the color of the wine has little impact on the final flavor or appearance of the finished sauce.
Whether you go with red or white, wine is an essential element, adding a touch of brightness and acidity to balance the heaviness of the meat.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Tomatoes are the other acidic element in the mix. The Silver Spoon‘s classic recipe calls for no other liquid than some tomato paste and water or stock to thin it out. I prefer to use canned peeled whole tomatoes, preferably high-quality ones, like imported Italian D.O.P. San Marzanos.
The gelatin-enriched stock makes up the bulk of the liquid. As that stock reduces, it becomes more intense in both flavor and texture.
And now to the most controversial element: dairy.
The closest I could find to an explanation was this bit from Cook’s Illustrated:
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Either way, it’s clear that adding milk is a good thing.
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How To Get Tender And Flavorful Meat
And now we get to the most crucial phase of the process: the long cook. Browning meat adds flavor, but can toughen it. How do we get great browned flavor without reducing the tender meat to dry rubble?
The whole reason I was extra excited for Bolognese season to start this year was because of a new red sauce technique I developed simmering it in the oven instead of the stovetop.
Not only does the oven deliver more even heat and better reduction with less mess, it also creates delicious caramelized bits of tomato on the surface of the sauce and around the edges of the pot, which you can stir back into the finished sauce for richer, deeper, more complex flavor.
What if I were to do the exact same thing to my Bolognese? In theory the technique should provide plenty of flavor through the browning of stray proteins and sugars stuck to the inside edges of the pot, along with whatever small bits of meat are exposed on the surface of the simmering sauce, while keeping the vast majority of the meat submerged and tender.
Don’t you just love it when your theories end up panning out in real life? By cooking down the sauce in the oven and scraping around the edges as it cooked, I ended up with a finished sauce that was packed with browned-meat flavor, but still silky and tender.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Freezing And Storing Bolognese
To freeze an extra batch or leftovers, let the sauce come to room temperature then transfer to a freezer safe bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Thaw under refrigeration then reheat on the stovetop. You can add a splash of broth or pasta cooking water to loosen the sauce up if needed while reheating.
Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for up to a week.
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How To Use Liver In Rag Bolognese
This takes us to what many folks who have tried Barbara Lynch’s recipe would consider the key element. The, er…Barbara Lynch-pin, if you will : chicken livers. It’s an ingredient that Pellegrino Artusi recommended in his 1891 cookbookScience in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, which includes one of the first printed recipes for ragù Bolognese. Chicken livers don’t make it into many modern recipes.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Liver adds flavor and depth to the sauce in a way that sits in the background. Nobody who tastes the sauce would ever suspect that there are livers in itunless they happen to bite into a chunk of one.
In the restaurant, I’d carefully clean and trim the veins and connective tissue from each liver before finely chopping them all by hand. Now I find it easier to blend them into a smooth purée using an immersion blender.
Recipe Notes And Tips
- Use the leanest ground beef available.
- Any oil will work
- Broth: we used chicken broth. but you may sub with beef or vegetable broth.
- Pasta: any pasta will work, use your favorite. For a low carb option, you may serve your beef bolognese with zoodles.
- Dont be tempted to skip any of the vegetables. The three of them play off each other: the carrots add sweetness, the onions add sharpness, and the celery adds a savory component.
- Dont skip the parmesan rind. While its too tough and hard to eat, it adds a ton of flavor to the dish when simmered. Be sure to fish out the parmesan rind at the end.
- A good substitute for parmesan rind would be Pecorino Romano and Gruyère.
- Dont have fresh garlic? Use one tablespoon of garlic powder.
- Allow the amount of time to simmer down for the best flavors.
- Store leftovers in a container and store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- To freeze a batch of this bolognese sauce, once its cooled, add to a ziplock bag, seal, and freeze for up to 3-5 months.
- To make this bolognese sauce recipe gluten-free, use gluten-free pasta or zoodles.
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Why Our Easy Bolognese Recipe Works
How can you possibly make a delicious Bolognese in just 30 minutes? The key is to build big flavors out of a few super-powerful ingredients. Here are four reasons why this recipe works so well:
Reasons To Love This Pasta Bolognese Recipe:
- Easy. Want to know my shortcut tip for EASY Bolognese Sauce?! I chop my onions, carrot and celery in my food processor! This means practically ZERO chopping. After you sauté the meat and veggies, all you have to do is stir a bit while it simmers for restaurant quality Bolognese at home!
- Pantry friendly ingredients. Just pick up some carrots, onions and celery , and you can make this Bolognese Sauce recipe any time because you probably already have the rest of ingredients already or you can easily stalk up on them.
- Crowd pleaser. EVERYONE loves Pasta Bolognese! Serve it with your favorite pasta and even the pickiest eaters will be singing your praises!
- Makes a large quantity. This Bolognese sauce recipe makes enough to serve for dinner and then enjoy leftovers the next day OR its enough for large crowds, dinner parties or company.
- Less Expensive. This Bolognese recipe tastes like your dining at your favorite Italian restaurant but you can serve the entire family for the same price as one serving!
- Make Ahead. Bolognese only tastes better the next day, so it is perfect to make a day or two in advance and then just reheat at dinner time.
- Freezer friendly. You can make this best Bolognese sauce and enjoy some now and freeze the rest for later or make it strictly to freeze. It makes a fabulous gift for new moms or when someone has had surgery.
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Making Ahead And Freezing
Freezing instructions:
Allow the cooked sauce to cool to room temperature. Transfer the sauce to freezer safe containers or bags. I like to portion out a few cups into each container to make for easier thawing. I also know that we usually use around 3 cups of bolognese with pasta so it makes sense to portion it out that way. Thaw the bolognese in the fridge overnight then transfer to a small saucepan and heat until bubbling.
Make ahead:
Bolognese sauce will last for 2-3 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer.
