Bolognese Sauce

5 from 3 votes

Bolognese Sauce is easy to make by slow cooking meat, veggies, and seasonings for a few hours with minimal work. This thick and creamy sauce makes any meal more hearty.

Prep Time10

Cook Time1

Total Time1 10

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Calories: 519kcal

Author: Jennifer Fishkind

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
½ onion onion very finely diced (see notes)
2 carrots very finely diced (see notes)
2 celery stalks very finely diced (see notes)
1½ tablespoon minced garlic very finely diced (see notes)
4 ounces pancetta or bacon finely diced (see notes)
1 pound ground beef
1 pound mild Italian sausage
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
⅛ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup beef broth
28 ounce can San Mariano crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup whole milk
1 pound pasta cookes

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large sauce pan and add the onion, carrots, celery and onion. Cook for 5 minutes over medium low heat. Remove the vegetables from the pan.
Add the beef, sausage and pancetta to the pan and cook till the beef is no longer pink. Take the extra time to finely chop the meat as it cooks.
Season the meat with salt, pepper, and nutmeg and stir in the vegetables.
Add the white wine and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes.
Add the beef broth, crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste. Stir to combine.
Add the sprig of thyme and the bay leaf. Simmer over low heat for 1 to 2 hours.
15 minutes before serving, stir in the milk and gently simmer the remainder of the time.
Cook the pasta according to the package directions, then toss in the bolognese sauce and serve.

Notes

Storage:

To Store: Store your sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
To Freeze: This sauce can be frozen in a freezer-safe container or ziploc bag for up to 3 months. This sauce will expand when frozen so keep that in mind when you are storing.
To Reheat: To reheat frozen sauce, let it thaw in your fridge. Then, you can cook it on the stovetop or microwave, stirring every 20 seconds, until heated through.

Tips:

I prefer to place the bacon or pancetta in a food processor and process for 2 or 3 seconds at a time until the meat is in very small pieces.
After removing the meat from the processor, you can add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic and process for a few seconds till the vegetables are in very small pieces.
This sauce can be simmered for an hour and used over noodles. But, allowing it to simmer for 2 hours will meld the flavors even more. Make sure the sauce doesn’t get too dry. You can add a little extra broth if needed.
The alcohol is cooked out the longer it simmers.

Nutrition