Beef Bolognese is a meat and tomato based sauce. The recipe originated in Bologna, Italy. Ground beef is minced while slow cooked in a sauce of onions, carrots, celery, garlic, tomatoes, milk, and wine.
Beef Bolognese - A Thick Meat Sauce For Pasta
Beef Bolognese concentrates more on the meat and less on the sauce. Ground beef and sauce are simmered together for a couple hours. This helps the meat sauce to reduce and concentrate the flavors.
By the time the bolognese is done cooking it should have little to no sauce, but the meat should be moist, tender, and flavorful.
Lastly, in Italy, tomato sauce can also be known as ragu or tomato gravy or just "gravy". All are thick sauces that are poured over a meal. So call it ground beef ragu, beef gravy or call it beef sauce. Tomato / To-ma-tow 🙂
What to Serve with Beef Bolognese
Traditionally, beef bolognese is served with tagliatelle. However, spaghetti or any other shaped pasta will work.
Gluten free folks can serve it with zucchini noodles (zoodles).
Don't forget the Parmesan cheese on Beef Bolognese! It's salty complex flavor complement the meat sauce perfectly. Or check out my easy Parmesan crisp recipe.
Trouble Shooting Beef Bolognese
The milk will look dirty, cloudy, and a bit foamy when cooking this beef bolognese recipe. This is how it's supposed to look - trust the process!
Dairy free folks use broth or unsweetened almond or oat milk in place of regular milk.
Don't have regular milk? Check out the video for this bolognese recipe - use half and half mixed with water in a pinch.
White wine is more traditional than red in beef bolognese. Even though that seems counter intuitive to a red tomato based sauce, the white wine version does taste better, in my opinion.
However, in a pinch, either white or red wine will work for this Beef Bolognese recipe.
Moderating the Heat for Beef Bolognese Sauce
Moderate the heat for the bolognese sauce as it's cooking. As liquid evaporates, the heat needs to be lowered accordingly, so the sauce doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan.
This requires some attention as it cooks down. Stirring the sauce is necessary every so often as well, especially as the liquid evaporates.
If the Bolognese sauce starts to dry out while cooking the tomatoes then add ½ cup of water at a time. But by the end, there should be no liquid left and you will see the fat separate from a very thick sauce.
Hungry? This is the long way to make beef Bolognese sauce. If you're starving, cut the process short after simmering the tomato sauce for 30 minutes.
Traditional Beef Bolognese Recipe FAQS:
Sure! Traditionally Bolognese is made with ground beef, but ground sausage will work or even a combination of Italian pork sausage and ground beef.
Substitute beef, chicken, or vegetable broth for wine.
Milk adds depth to the flavor as well as making the minced ground beef super tender because of the calcium enzymes react with and soften the beef proteins.
Simmer beef bolognese with the lid off. This reduces the sauce and concentrates the flavors. Be careful salting the sauce too much because it cooks so long and while the liquids evaporate, the salts don't evaporate but concentrate instead.
Traditional Beef Bolognese Sauce
EatSimpleFood.com
Bolognese is a meat and tomato based sauce. The ground meat is minced while slow cooked for hours with the sauce of milk, wine, and tomatoes.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 55 minutes
- Yield: 6-8
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ cup onion, diced
- 1 cup celery, finely diced
- 1 cup carrots, finely diced
- 1 ½ tablespoon garlic, minced
- 2 lb ground beef
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups dry white wine (sub red if you want)
- 56 oz Italian plum tomatoes, diced w/ juices
- ½ cup Parmesan, grated as garnish
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 lb spaghetti, cooked according to instructions or zucchini noodles
Instructions
- Bring a large stockpot to medium high heat and add butter and olive oil until melted.
- Add onion, carrots, and celery. Cook ~ 3-5 minutes covered or until onions are translucent and vegetables soft. Reduce heat if needed.
- Add beef, garlic, salt, and black pepper. Crumble the meat with the back of a large fork or spatula until minced. This can be a work out because you want it minced and not big chunks of ground beef.
- When beef is cooked and browned, add 2 cups whole milk, bring to a boil & simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, ~ 30-35 minutes or until milk/liquid has cooked off.
- Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer an additional 30-35 minutes uncovered or until it has evaporated.
- Add the tomatoes, bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer uncovered ~ 1 - 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add pasta. Cook ~ 8-12 minutes or until desired consistency. Drain pasta.
- Plate and top with sauce OR mix ½ the sauce with the noodles and top with additional meat sauce. Garnish with Parmesan cheese. Happy Eating! Beckie
Notes
- The milk will look dirty, cloudy, and a bit foamy when cooking. This is how it's supposed to look - trust the process!
- If the beef sauce starts to dry out when cooking the tomatoes for so long, you can add ½ cup of water at a time, but by the end there should be no liquid left and you will see the fat separate from the sauce.
- Hungry? This is the long way to make the sauce. If you're starving, cut the process short after simmering the tomatoes for 30 minutes. It won't be traditional and thick but it will have more sauce like your regular ole spaghetti and sauce recipe.
Things In My Kitchen:
- Classic cheese grater - This is old school and nice for when you want a little cheese (my arm gets tired of turning sometimes). I find that a microplane zester can be just as easy for when you want more cheese.
- Over the sink colander - I love that this nestles right into the sink and strains off liquids.
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Serving Suggestion
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