Simple Bolognese Recipe
This simple bolognese recipe slowly simmers on your stove for a few hours and makes the most incredible homemade meal. It is one of those recipes that is extremely forgiving and the taste is so extraordinary that you will want to make it again and again.
What is Bolognese?
Bolognese is a meat based sauce made popular by Italian cuisine. This sauce originated in the city of Bologna, which is how it got it’s name. In Italy it is usually served with Tagliatelle pasta or used to make Lasagna.
One of the reasons this sauce is so great is because it is slowly cooked. When something cooks slowly, the ingredients have a longer time to meld together and create a delicious flavor. A traditional bolognese sauce does not have much tomato in it. It only has a little bit of tomato paste in addition to white wine and milk.
In the United States a lot of places add a lot more tomato sauce into their bolognese, which is actually more similar to the tomato heavy sauces in the south of Italy, but not actually similar to a traditional bolognese sauce. My version of bolognese is a combination of traditional Italian bolognese and the American version and it truly is the most perfect simple bolognese recipe.
The Best Bolognese Sauce Recipe
This thick and meaty Bolognese sauce is a great solution to the popular question of “What’s for dinner”?. I love making a bolognese sauce on a Sunday to eat with pasta or gnocchi(Gnocchi Bolognese) and some garlic bread. I always make a lot so that we can have lunches packed for a few days. Sometimes instead of taking the leftovers for lunch we will use some of the sauce to make a bolognese pizza.
I like to make this sauce with a mix of ground beef and ground pork Italian sausage. You can either buy the sausage in link form and remove it from the casing, or buy sausage already ground. One brand that makes it like this in the New Jersey/Pennsylvania area is Hatfield Meats. I will list a few substitutions for meat below in case pork is not your thing,
If you are looking for a sauce that will impress your guests, or really just impress yourself, this is the recipe for you. The flavor is so incredible and it is honestly one of the best things I have ever made. The combination and balance of all these flavors is so delicious.
Substitutions/Tips
Instead of using 90/10 ground beef, I have made this with 96/4 ground beef and it was still delicious. Your fat ratio will be different in this recipe, but the recipe still has a great flavor.
Also, instead of using pork sausage I have made this with raw Italian Chicken Sausage links. They sell them at Trader Joes, but you have to make sure you get the raw sausage and not the pre-cooked sausage. You want to be able to remove the sausage from the casing and ground it into your ground beef.
Do not skimp on the wine. It is an important ingredient in this dish to make it taste authentic. Also, even though red wine normally goes with red meat, white wine is traditionally used when cooking this dish.
How do you make Gnocchi Bolognese?
INGREDIENTS FOR GNOCCHI BOLOGNESE
Bolognese Sauce
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 Large Carrot diced
- 1 Celery Stalk diced
- 1 Small Yellow Onion diced
- 4 cloves Garlic minced
- 16 oz Ground sweet italian sausage if you cannot find it pre ground then you can buy regular sausage, remove it from the casing, and then ground it.
- 16 oz Ground Beef 85% or 90%
- 1/2 cup White Wine
- 3 tbsp Tomato Paste
- 10 oz Tomato Puree Passata
- 1 cup Beef Broth
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 pinch Nutmeg
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SIMPLE BOLOGNESE RECIPE
Bolognese Sauce
- Heat the butter on medium heat and add the onion, carrot, and celery. Cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally so that it does not burn.
- Add the garlic, italian sausage, salt, pepper, and beef. Cook until the meat is mostly cooked.
- Add the wine and stir. Allow the alcohol to cook out of the wine for about 3-5 minutes. Then, add your tomato paste and stir it in so that it is fully incorporated.
- Add your tomato puree, beef broth, bay leaf, pinch of nutmeg and milk. Mix well and allow to simmer on low heat for 2-3 hours.
What to serve with Pasta Bolognese
This dish is really filling on it’s own because of the creamy meat sauce. To balance this meal, either serve this with a salad or a vegetable. This would probably go great with my air fryer cauliflower recipe mixed into the sauce or even some roasted asparagus.
Simple Bolognese Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 large Carrot diced
- 1 Celery Stalk diced
- 1 small Yellow Onion diced
- 4 Garlic Cloves minced
- 16 oz Sweet Italian Sausage (raw) if you cannot find it pre ground then you can buy regular sausage, remove it from the casing, and then ground it.
- 16 oz Ground Beef 85/15 or 90/10
- 1/2 cup White Wine Red is ok, but white wine is what is traditionally used to make Bolognese sauce
- 3 tbsp Tomato Paste
- 10 oz Tomato Puree Passata
- 1 cup Beef Broth
- 1/2 cup Whole Milk
- 3/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 pinch Nutmeg
Instructions
- Heat the butter on medium heat and add the onion, carrot, and celery. Cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally so that it does not burn.
- Add the garlic, italian sausage, salt, pepper, and beef. Cook until the meat is mostly cooked.
- Add the wine and stir. Allow the alcohol to cook out of the wine for about 3-5 minutes. Then, add your tomato paste and stir it in so that it is fully incorporated.
- Add your tomato puree, beef broth, bay leaf, pinch of nutmeg and milk. Mix well and allow to simmer on low heat for 2-3 hours.
This was really good! I forgot to buy a carrot 😩 so I doubled my celery and added a little brown sugar for the hint of sweetness. Worked out great with Trader Joe’s gnocchi and I have some nice leftovers! Will make again (with a carrot next time)
This was really good! – Since I don’t like celery and carrot.. I substituted it with mushrooms. In hindsight, they would probably add to taste more and I should’ve chopped the pieces bigger so I could take it out. But mushroom did well too.
It was different with soft and squishy gnocchis instead of any other pastas we normally would eat with bolognese.
My MIL also asked if it wasn’t suppose to be spaghetti because she had only seen it eaten that way. She also had gnocchis for the first time, added rice on her second portion.
And for next day leftover, it was great and still tasted soft and yummy! 🤗