Bolognese is an Italian meat sauce. This one is made with ground beef and lots of fresh ingredients like carrots, celery and onion. Fresh basil, oregano and a bay leaf gives this bolognese so much flavor. Serve with spaghetti or your favorite pasta.
You could replace the sauce in this easy stovetop gnocchi lasagna and use this bolognese for a fun dinner.
This recipe was first published on November 2, 2020.
Bolognese is my husband's all time favorite dish to order at a restaurant. So you can imagine how thrilled he was when I stared making my own restaurant quality recipe for spaghetti bolognese.
Sort of like this 20 minute pumpkin ravioli, it gets rave reviews for being restaurant quality but so easy.
If you've never tasted bolognese, it is a very rich meat sauce that has a lot of components. Vegetables, broth, often times red wine. This recipe has no wine, just chicken broth.
The difference between bolognese and marinara is that in a bolognese sauce the meat is the star, in a marinara the tomatoes are the star.
The secret ingredient is bacon. Read on for how I use bacon to start building flavor.
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What Pasta To Use
The options are endless when it comes to which pasta to select for your bolognese. Realistically any type of pasta will work.
A few of the most popular will be spaghetti, tagliatelle, pappardelle, rigatoni and penne.
We're a spaghetti household, so spaghetti is what I like to use.
How To Make Bolognese
Making this delicious bolognese is all about building flavors.
Bacon is the first ingredient that you'll be starting with. The bacon gets chopped up then added to a large pan, like a dutch oven. You want to get this crispy, then do not wipe out any grease, leave it there.
Additionally I like to take the bacon out give it another rough chop and toss it back in.
In go carrots, onion, celery (all chopped) for a 10 minute saute. The ground beef is next, with an additional 10 minutes of cook time.
Here's the secret to knowing when it's ready at this point. The meat will start to make a crackling sound. Pay attention to your heat, you don't want to burn anything.
Last to go in is all of the wet ingredients and herbs. Chicken broth, tomato paste and crushed tomatoes. The herbs are oregano, basil leaves (preferably fresh), and a bay leaf.
Some salt with enhance all the flavors. You'll stop adding anything new and simmer this, covered, for 1 hour. And that's it, so easy!
Tips and Tricks
The cracking sound you'll be listening to for when the meat is ready is a very distinct crackle. It will go from the sound of just browning, to cooking, to the crackling.
It's important to let it cook while making this crackle, for 5 minutes. Adjust the heat if it's too hot.
You don't want to leave it unattended at this point because it could burn your meat.
Getting the bolognese sauce to stick to your pasta is always what you want. You don't want it sliding right off, all pooled on your plate.
To achieve this, do not rinse your pasta after draining. That is a big no no.
You need those extra starches to remain on the pasta, it gives the sauce something to stick to.
One of my favorite things about this bolognese recipe is that you can freeze it so easily! Pull it out of the freezer and it makes the perfect easy weeknight meal, just boil some pasta to go with it.
It tastes just as good after being frozen too.
FAQ
Great question! The ingredients need to sit together to make a great flavor. This bolognese is actually really good the next day!
Yes! You can easily freeze the bolognese in a ziploc bag to use later. To reheat, move it from the freezer to the fridge then transfer to a pot on the stove. You may want to add a bit of chicken broth to it if it's too thick.
Eat your bolognese meat sauce within 5 days. If you want to eat it later than that, try to freeze the sauce the day you make it.
Yes, you will remove the bay leaf. Or you can leave it in and just scoop around it. But you won't want to serve it in someones bowl.
Dried oregano, fresh basil and a bay leaf.
More Pasta Recipes To Try
If you are looking for a beef based pasta dish try out tara's easy stovetop lasagna, lasagna tortellini soup and easy stovetop gnocchi lasagna. Can you tell lasagna is a big deal around here?
If you are looking for chicken being the star of the dinner than this lemon basil chicken pasta is quite nice, or this chicken and sun dried tomato pasta.
Ground turkey meatballs and pasta are my go to for a ground turkey dinner, and this white wine gnocchi and shrimp is so amazing, there are even instructions if you want to make homemade gnocchi.
Spaghetti Bolognese Meat Sauce
Bolognese is an Italian meat sauce. This one is made with ground beef and lots of fresh ingredients like carrots, celery and onion. Fresh basil, oregano and a bay leaf gives this bolognese so much flavor.
Ingredients
- 6 oz pancetta
- 2 carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 2 celery stalks, chopped (about ½ c)
- ½ onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 28 oz organic Italian whole canned tomatoes
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 c water
- 1 tsp chicken better than bouillon
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ c red or white wine
- 5 large fresh basil leaves, chopped
Instructions
- Heat a large dutch oven pot over medium/low heat. Cook the proscuitto. Add in the carrots, celery and onion. Saute until soft.
- Pour out everything in the pot into a food processor. Add the can of whole tomatoes. Process until everything is minced.
- Cook the ground beef in the pot with some olive oil. Drain any grease.
- Pour the contents of the food processor into the pot. Add the water, chicken bouillon, tomato paste, oregano, bay leaves, salt, pepper and wine.
- Cover and simmer on low for 6 hours. Checking occasionally (every 30 minutes) to make sure it's not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- When the sauce is done, remove the bay leaves and add the chopped basil.
- Serve with pasta.
Notes
Try your 6 hour simmer with the rind from a block of parmigianno reggiano cheese to add depth of flavor.
*2/7/26 After years of making this recipe and tweaking I've updated it to best reflect how I make it currently and what tastes the best.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 246Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 6gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 53mgSodium: 421mgCarbohydrates: 6gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 15g
This information comes from online calculators. Although moderncrumb.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Amy Andersen
I’m not sure if it was just the brand of crushed tomatoes I used but this ended up very acidic at the end and didn’t have enough richness even with the bacon, but that’s also my fault for not checking the sauce before serving and messing around with it to combat the acidity.
Tara Moore
Hi Amy! It can 100% have to do with the tomatoes chosen to use. Or it needed to simmer longer to continue to cook out the acidity. I've been doing a 4 hour simmer with much luck for all my tomato based stews this last year so I'll update this to reflect that. (Also - I like the sprouts brand organic Italian style whole canned tomatoes).
Jan
I have made this several times. We love it! I always double the recipe to put extra in the freezer. 🥰
Tara Moore
Yum, great idea! It reheats nicely.
Barbara Jane
For Italian food lovers! This dish is superbly delicious 🙂
Tara Moore
Thank you Barbara!