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.
It was so good. I had a recipe similar to the years ago and the milk makes it so much better.
I just made this recipe as part of our Christmas Eve dinner. I am floored. This is delicious. Everyone was raving about it. I only wish I made a double batch! I followed the recipe to the letter. This will be part of our family tradition now and forever more. My mother passed last year and had been sick for many years. One my fondest memories was the Christmas Eve table full of amazing italian food especially the bolognese. Now I can carry that tradition on with my own twist since her recipes left this world with her. Nothing was ever written done. Thank you and Merry Christmas!
We are so glad you enjoyed this recipe, Lisa ❤️
I have tried several bolognese recipes, and this is my favorite by far. I used spicy Italian sausage in place of ground pork and closer to 1 pound (just to avoid waste) and didn’t have celery, but still, it was amazing. Very flavorful!
My first attempt at making bolognese. Delicious! My Italian friend tasted it and declared it is the recipe she will now follow. Except for the meat mixture, I followed the recipe to the letter! The one thing I had to change is the meat mixture. The store I was in had no ground veal but they did have a 1.5 lb. package of ground together meatball/meatloaf mix of beef, veal and pork so that’s what I ended up having to use. Didn’t hurt the flavor in the least! (And it’s true that San Marzano tomatoes are truly the best tasting and make a difference.)
That sounds delicious, I am glad you enjoyed it!
this recipe was delicious! The only thing I changed was instead of adding milk I added a generous parmesan rind while it simmered, an extra clove of garlic and lots of salt and pepper. I did do the red wine instead of the beef broth. It was so rich and tasty!
Sounds delicious, Alicia! :)
please send me a copy of your ebook
Hi Anita, We have a collection of ebooks you can find here. Enjoy!
fabulous! tyvm
Very tasty. But I’m curious… why drain the fat after cooking the onions and garlic in it. I’ve always cooked the meat first, drained it, cooked the onions and garlic in a little of the fat and then added the meat back. Is there a reason I haven’t figured out for the order you use?
You can make this recipe either way, Kathy. Cooking the onions and garlic first and then draining all the fat afterwards just controls the amount of fat in the recipe. This way all the fat is drained instead of adding some back in to cook with.
love this recipie
Was a hit at a party we attended but towards end of cooking, felt like it was lacking quite a bit of flavour and MMPPH.
Added quite a loooooot of salt and pepper then also more garlic powder.
enjoyed this recipe! easy to make. I used ground turkey and ground pork . served it over spaghetti squash for a healthy meal. Makes alot.
Fabulous! This was easy and delicious and is my new favorite sauce. I used the pappardelle pasta and it was perfect. (I used ground round- added 1 extra clove and 1/2 teaspoon Basil. Next time I’ll try beef and pork.)
delicious!! all my kids loved it and I did make it with a dry red wine.
Your recipe it’s quite close to that which I have used for decades, (and which I love) that we were given by an Italian farmer’s wife, in the late 50s, whilst on a camping holiday in Northern Italy. In my opinion, do you need the marjorum, to complete the full list of flavours for the Bolognese sauce which we received in the Bologna, Italy.
Another difference is that of the Italian recipes versus the American recipes… Italians do not use anywhere near as many tomatoes in their Bolognese sauce. For 6 to 8 people, I use approximately 200 g of chopped tomatoes and 200 g tomato paste (puree). I also use about 4 heaped teaspoons of white sugar (no wines or milk or cream [or coffee!]) A true Italian Bolognese sauce is not a tomato sauce… it is a meat sauce with a trace of tomatoes in it, giving a beautiful deep rich flavour of beef and pork together. Barilla # 3 or #5 are also (IMHO) the finest of spaghettis for this meal… not any other type of pasta!
One final very important point, never drain the fat! The fat is where the flavour resides… Not the ingredients themselves!
Please try these slight modifications and let me know!
Thanks for sharing, Bruce! Those modifications sound delicious.
Without the milk can it sitll be called Bolgenese, or just meat sauce?
The comment about NOT draining the fat is dead on correct. Never do it, beside this one small issue this recipe is very good. Close to Marcella’s original
It’s looking delicious !
Just wait until you taste it ! It’s so yummy!
So GOOD!!! It didn’t take very long, as my beef stock and milk evaporated in way less than 18min. I made 2 changes to the original recipe since I had limited ingredients. I substituted the whole canned tomatoes for 3 diced Roma tomatoes and the pork for more beef (we rarely have ground pork in our fridge). It still turned out fantastic and was a total comfort food!! Thanks for a great recipe!
first time trying this recipe Not sure what I am looking for in flavour I know it is not chili or a spaghetti sauce Sitting on the fence, easy to make and I prefer SanMarzano tomatoes but not in my pantry. Had to use beef broth no wine and no pork as well only had 2% milk. I am still giving this a thumbs up and will make sure I have all the right ingredients next time I make this receipe
I added Worcestershire sauce, a Parmesan rind and 1 heaping teaspoon of better than beef bouillon
This was easy and is delicious! Definitely making this again. Add milk who knew?!
Fantastic recipe. I’m on a low salt diet so I used crushed Italian tomatoes with no salt added then increased the salt to 3/4 teaspoon (kosher salt). The sodium is reduced by nearly 40% to 360 mg and there was no sacrifice in the taste. This my go to recipe for Bolognese sauce.