An Easy Bolognese Recipe You’ll Fall In Love With Over and Over Again

Bolognese is my go-to Italian restaurant order. It’s a given. Directly after I single-handedly devour an entire bread basket meant for two (or maybe 3), I go straight to the menu to confirm they have just what I want. Once I find and order my beloved dish, my mouth is already watering with excitement– more like flooding. When it finally comes out and is positioned right in front of me, I say yes to cheese (a little more, please?), place my napkin on my lap, and then get to work.

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Since we’re all spending a lot more time at home, my bolognese binges are very few and far between. Thankfully, after a recent bolognese craving, I was able to create a recipe that satisfied each and every tastebud. This easy bolognese recipe is such a breeze, it carries me right back to that Italian restaurant.

How to make a bolognese sauce?

The whole sauce comes together in one of my favorite kitchen accessories, my dutch oven. All the ingredients go into one pot (except for the pasta). The prep work is pretty minimal.

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Substitutions for this recipe

No food processor? I tend to like my bolognese sauce with very fine vegetable which is why this recipe calls for shredding the carrots and celery in a food processor and using tomato puree. But, no worries if you don’t have a food processor you can simply just dice the veggies with a knife.

No heavy cream? This recipe also calls a bit of heavy cream to create the richness, but milk will work just fine.

Don’t have or eat ground beef? You can substitute ground turkey or chicken for the sauce.

What pasta should I use for bolognese?

Feel free to use any noodle you have at hand. I happen to love fettuccini but a rigatoni, penne, or an orecchiette would work just fine.

I hope you enjoy this weekday staple as much as I do. When you make it please let me know in the comments or tag me on Instagram so I can see your masterpiece before you devour it in 5 minutes.

An Easy Bolognese Recipe

Yield: 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 3 hours 15 minutes

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Ingredients

• 3 tbsp of olive oil 
• 1 shallot, diced 
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 medium sized carrots, shredded in a food processor 
• 2 ribs of celery, shredded in a food processor  
• 1lb of ground beef 
• 1/4 cup of tomato paste
• 1 15oz. can of pureed tomatoes. You can use diced tomatoes and puree them in a blender until smooth
• 1/4 cup of red wine
• 3 tbsp of heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste
• 8 oz of fettuccini 
• 1 cup of pasta water

Instructions

1. In a large dutch oven, heat up olive oil under medium heat.
2. Once hot, add your shallots and sprinkle salt so they start to sweat. Once translucent, add your garlic. Watch carefully so it doesn't burn.
3. Add your shredded carrots and celery and cook for about 3 minutes.
4. Add your ground beef and break apart with a wooden spoon until its broken up into small little pieces. Keep doing this until the meat us browned.
5. Deglaze the pan with your wine and let it cook off for about 2-3 minutes.
6. Add your tomato paste and mix together. Then add your tomatoes. Let that all cook for about 5 minutes.
7. Add the heavy cream, salt and pepper to taste.
8. Bring the heat down to a low simmer and cover the dutch oven. Cook for 3 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent the tomatoes from burning on the bottom. Taste throughout to adjust salt and pepper.
9. Once the bolognese is ready, right before you're about to serve make your pasta. Heavily salt your pasta water and cook the fettuccini (or pasta of choice) so it's al dente. About 7-8 minutes.
10. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, and drain the rest of your pasta. Add the pasta directly to the bolognese and slowly pour in the pasta water until the bolognese sauce sticks to the pasta. You likely won't need all the reserved pasta water, so include just what you need in order for the sauce to bind to the pasta.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 709Total Fat: 41gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 22gCholesterol: 132mgSodium: 300mgCarbohydrates: 42gFiber: 6gSugar: 9gProtein: 42g