Bolognese is an easy-to-make meat sauce that is perfect for any type of pasta!
This zesty sauce has ground meat, onion, and garlic, simmered until thick and rich.
This recipe freezes and reheats well, making it the perfect weeknight meal!
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights
Bolognese differs from typical spaghetti sauce with the addition of celery and carrot plus a little bit of milk. While it may sound unusual, these ingredients add a distinct flavor, a bit of richness, and some sweetness.
- Flavor: This thick pasta sauce is zesty and full of flavor.
- Technique: Let the milk and wine simmer until almost evaporated. If you’re using a smaller pot, this can take a bit longer.
- Prep note: This recipe freezes well so feel free to double it—cook once, eat twice!
- Budget tip: You can use any ground meat for this recipe; buy what’s on sale.
- Swaps: I highly recommend wine in this recipe but if you don’t have wine, beef broth is a suitable replacement.
- Serving suggestions: This sauce is excellent over pasta—pappardelle is my favorite. You can also use it for homemade lasagna or baked ziti!
Ingredient Tips for Bolognese
- Vegetables: Onions, carrots, and celery are known as mirepoix, and they add flavor to bolognese. If you’d like other veggies, chop them finely and add them in.
- Meat: I use a combination of ground beef and pork because I love the flavor—feel free to use all beef if it’s what you have on hand. Ground veal or Italian sausage are also delicious additions.
- Tomatoes: Canned whole tomatoes have a thicker consistency compared to diced tomatoes so I prefer them in this recipe. If possible, San Marzano tomatoes are the best choice for flavor. Canned diced tomatoes or crushed tomatoes can be used, but may change the consistency slightly.
- Wine: Any dry red wine is great, but honestly any red will do. I usually use cabernet or merlot. Wine adds a lot of depth to this sauce so I highly recommend adding it.
- Milk: An unusual but traditional ingredient in an authentic bolognese sauce.
How To Make Bolognese Sauce
This bolognese sauce takes time to make but it really is easy! Once the prep work is done this recipe just simmers away until thickened.
- Cook Veggies & Meat: Brown the chopped veggies and the meat, then drain off any fat.
- Add Wine/Milk: Add the wine and let it simmer away. Next, add the milk and allow that to simmer away too.
- Simmer: Add remaining ingredients (per recipe below) and allow it to simmer until thick.
While the sauce simmers, cook pasta according to the directions. Add salt and pepper and parmesan, serve and enjoy!
Serving Suggestions
I like to serve this bolognese over long pasta such as pappardelle or tagliatelle. Serve this dish with the sides you’d add to spaghetti and meatballs.
- SALAD Round the meal with an easy tossed salad or Italian Salad for a perfect Italian feast any night of the week!
- BREAD homemade garlic bread is a must.
Storing Leftover Bolognese Sauce
Bolognese is a great sauce to make ahead since, like chili recipe, the flavors “meld and marry” and just get better.
- Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
- Freeze for up to 3 months in a sealed container, leaving about an inch for expansion. A tightly sealed zippered freezer bag works as well. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
- Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave, stirring occasionally until hot.
More Italian Inspiration
Did you enjoy this Homemade Bolognese Sauce? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 yellow onion finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 carrot finely diced
- 1 rib celery finely diced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- ½ pound lean ground pork
- 1 ¼ cups red wine or beef broth
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 can whole tomatoes with juices, 28 ounces each
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon salt more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- pappardelle or long pasta, for serving
Instructions
- In a large pot, cook onion in oil over medium heat until softened, about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add garlic, carrot, and celery, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add beef and pork. Break it up with a wooden spoon, until no pink remains. Drain fat.
- Add the wine and simmer uncovered until evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add milk and simmer uncovered until evaporated, about 8 minutes.
- Stir in tomatoes with juice, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and bay leaf. Break tomatoes up with a spoon. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Season with salt & pepper to taste.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1 ½ cups of pasta water and drain the pasta well.
- Toss pasta with sauce, adding pasta water to thin it out if needed.
- Serve hot with parmesan cheese.
Video
Notes
- Fridge – store in an airtight container or cover with plastic wrap for up to 4 days.
- Freezer – store in an airtight container, leaving about an inch for expansion, or in a zippered freezer bag for 2 – 3 months.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Pasta, Sauce
Cuisine American, Italian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Delicious recipe my favorite to make!
Followed the recipe to the T with the exception of the ground beef. I threw in a nice piece of pork tenderloin to go with the ground pork. This is definitely a recipe that comes out better and better the longer you let the sauce simmer. I cooked it until the pork tenderloin pulled apart and served over spaghetti. Will make this again.
Can I use Red Cooking Wine in place of the Red Wine? i only have the cooking wine on hand – or should i go buy the red wine instead. Thabk you for a response back… want to make this soon.
I usually only cook with wine I would drink. This recipe uses quite a bit of wine which is then concentrated so I would suggest buying a small bottle of inexpensive wine over cooking wine. I hope that helps.
I’ve read the same… cook with wine that you would drink. I don’t drink dry wine enough to have on hand however, I did take your advise & made a trip to the grocery store to purchase a smakk bottle of wine to make this. I appreciate you getting back with me with response. Thank You! I am planning on making this tomorrow or the next day and will let you know with a rating! Again, thank you. There are a good number of recipes from your blog I’m eyeing on making!!
Umm, when you say evaporated for the wine and again for the milk… How much is considered evaporated? I’ve simmered the wine for 20 minutes and finally the milk for almost 20 too and it’s still like soup… There’s more liquid than then meat mixture.
Hi Rich, the wine should be evaporated, meaning virtually no liquid left, in about 7-9 minutes and the milk in about 6-7 minutes. It should not be soupy, and I haven’t had that happen so I can’t say for sure what happened. I would continue to simmer until the liquid reduces.
Same thing is happening to me. Simmered the wine for almost 30 minutes and barely any evaporated, finally just added the milk and again, after 30 minutes it is like soup, hardly any has evaporated. I don’t know what I am doing wrong.
The larger the pot the quicker it is to evaporate. I use a fairly large dutch oven with a wide base and it takes approximately 7-9 minutes. If you used a skinnier soup pot it would take longer. I hope this helps Melyssa.
OMG DEVOURED!!!! ENTIRE FAMILY
This was a great recipe!..followed the instructions to a tee , except I followed several other reviews about pre-cooking the pasta before adding…everything turned out delicious!
Thx for the recipe…..
This is such an amazing recipe and has become a family favorite. As a wife of a first generation Sicilian –this recipe has received amazing feedback!
Great recipe! I was missing wine and the beef broth so added some pasta sauce in it’s place. The addition of milk was new to me and it made the sauce very “smooth” tasting, even though it was meaty and chunky. I also substituted mild Italian sausage meat instead of the ground pork.
Delicious!!! Awesome weeknight dinner. Made like recipe says. Will be making again. Thank you for the recipe
Can this recipe be canned in a boiling water bath? Maybe I should add a tablespoon of vinegar for each jars?
I don’t have enough experience with canning to know if this would be ok. Perhaps another reader may have some information to share.
This turned out so good! I used Italian sausage taken out of the casing and some chopped mushrooms. I do wish it thickened a tiny bit more but all in all super good:
Lush, flavorful, and gorgeous! Thank you!
Don’t add the milk untill the gravy is almost done, not at the beginning.
Thanks for the suggestions, Bill! We find it best to add the milk in Step 2 but I am sure that adding it towards the end turns out delicious too.
Hmmm… Just wondering why? Since the enzymes in the milk help tenderize the meat? Maybe I am missing a piece of information ? Not criticizing….just wondering if I lack some info
I’ll be making this again and again. The flavors are so complex. Why would I want to use jarred sauce again?
I made this recipe and it was delicious. I made it with a Meatloaf mixture from Food Lion of beef, pork and veal. Delicious! Ready to make another batch
This sauce was delicious! The milk step made me skeptical but it all works out! Thank you!
Amazing recipe. So flavorful it feels like it’s a fine dining restaurant meal, but homemade. Made it a few times. Added zucchini once and I also add mushroom broth paste. Amazing little addition!
Another plus. It’s a manageable dinner while trying to keep up with my one year old!
I am working on this while I type. So far, I have the veg. already sautéed. Because of the price of meat, I bought some mock steaks and Italian link sausages and ground them up myself and threw them in with the veg. I am nervous about veggies in my sauce, but more afraid of the milk to come.
Okay, everything is browned, grease is poured off ( I am making this at night so in morning I can scoop off any left over grease). Interestingly enough there is hardly any grease. Mini bottle of red wind and a small amount of stock have been added and are simmering. It never did reduce all the way, I did not have milk, so added 1/2 & 1/2 and some water and it is now simmering. Scary!! It was just as I thought the milk curdled. I stopped there.
Sorry to hear that, Karla. We have never had the milk curdle in this recipe but hopefully, these tips can help! To keep the milk from curdling you want to let it come only to a simmer until evaporated. Heating the milk too quickly or to a boiling point can cause it to curdle. And while it is still edible it definitely isn’t appetizing so I understand.
This is the first review I have ever written because this recipe is AMAZING! I could not find ground pork on the shelves (they were empty…even on a Tuesday), so I bought sausages, defrosted 2, removed the shell and used the inside as ground pork (I used Honey Garlic). Also, I added an envelope of onion soup mix when I browned the drained ground pork and beef mixture. Enjoy! Really tasty
Your substitutions sound delicious, Bettina! Glad you enjoyed it.
Very good. I did omit the bay leaf as I didn’t have that on hand and substituted the whole milk with creamy cashew milk (dairy allergy) and it turned out delicious. I make spaghetti sauce frequently from scratch but wanted to try something different and very glad I did!
Ugh….i doubled the recipe with intention of leftovers…no such luck….it’s all gone!! Three of us just ate enough for a family of 8! So delicious!