Easy Bolognese Recipe: Tips on How to Make Bolognese from Scratch

Bolognese sauce isn’t a complicated dish; it’s just a matter of cooking its simple ingredients in stages to build layers of flavor and simmering the sauce for at least 1 ½ to ideally 3 hours. It’s best to use a large, heavy-bottomed pot like a cast-iron Dutch oven, which provides even heat and plenty of space for the milk, wine, and tomatoes to reduce as they simmer.

It’s also key to chop the vegetables finely so you wind up with a fairly smooth sauce. If you’re not feeling the knife work, you can whiz each vegetable in a food processor until they’re finely chopped. I opt for canned crushed San Marzano tomatoes for ease. If you can’t find them, chop whole San Marzanos with their juice in a food processor or break up the tomatoes with your fingers.

Some Bolognese recipes use a blend of ground pork and beef. I like to start the sauce with finely diced pancetta and then add 20 percent fat ground beef, which produces a rich sauce that clings beautifully to pasta. Adding a piece of hard Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese rind (the last ½ inch of the hunk of cheese) to the sauce infuses it with umami. The rind will soften around the edges but won’t become edible, so discard it before serving the sauce.

Although a vegetarian Bolognese sauce is heresy to many, you can make it by omitting the pancetta and beef and adding a half-pound of finely chopped mushrooms to the onion, carrots, and celery, along with perhaps an ounce or so of reconstituted dried porcini mushrooms (finely chopped) for added depth. You can also add a can of drained lentils along with the tomatoes. A spoonful of Vegemite will contribute umami and depth to the meat-free sauce, too.

Bolognese Recipe

Makes about 8 cups, serves about 6

Ingredients:

2 ounces (¼ cup) diced pancetta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 pound ground beef (20 percent fat)
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
1 (28-ounce) can crushed San Marzano tomatoes, or canned whole tomatoes, finely chopped
1 rind of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 cup beef broth or water, if needed
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions:

Step 1: Put the pancetta and olive oil in a Dutch oven or cold saucepan. Turn the heat to medium high and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 4 minutes, or until the pancetta has rendered its fat and begins to brown and smoke a little bit. Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion, carrot, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the beef and cook for another 8 minutes or so, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until it’s no longer pink.

Step 2: Add the milk and cook, stirring occasionally, until the milk has nearly evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to stick to the bottom of the pan and brown just a bit, about 1 minute. Add the wine and simmer, scraping up any browned bits, until the wine has nearly evaporated, about 5 minutes.

Step 3: Add the tomatoes and cheese rind to the pot and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and cook partially covered, stirring occasionally, until the flavors have deepened, and the sauce has thickened a bit — this should take at least 1 ½ hours and up to 3 hours. Add a splash of broth or water if the sauce begins to look dry.

Step 4: Discard the cheese rind. Season the sauce with salt and pepper and serve immediately. To store, cool completely and transfer to an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer.

Dina Ávila is a photographer living in Portland, Oregon.