LF’s Best Bolognese Sauce
I wait all year long to make this perfect winter pasta sauce. Once the bulk of the work is done in the beginning, you just let it simmer away on the stovetop, filling your house with the most intoxicating of aromas
The trick is to cook the liquids out one at a time, building layers of flavors. The end product is so rich and savory, it will take you to your happy place. I love breaking it up with a nice kale salad, some garlic bread, and of course, copious amounts of a big, Italian red wine. Cause that’s love.
LF’s Best Bolognese Sauce Recipe
This dish is so deeply rich with winter tastes and vibes, and layers upon layers of developed flavor.
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Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold, divided
- 1 cup yellow onion, chopped
- ½ cup carrot, minced
- ½ cup celery, minced
- 1 Tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ pound Italian sausage, removed from casing
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup dry red wine, Chianti is perfect for this
- 1 – 14.5 oz can whole peeled tomatoes
- 1 – 6 oz can tomato paste
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- ¼ tsp ground rosemary *
- ⅓ cup grated parmesan
- olive oil
- kosher salt
- black pepper
- red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium heat, drizzle in a little olive oil and 2 Tbsp butter. Sauté the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic all together with a pinch of salt, pepper, and red pepper flake (if using). Cook until everything is softened, about 10 minutes. Everything for the sauce happens in the same pot!
- Add in the ground beef and Italian sausage with another pinch of salt, pepper, and red pepper flake. Break meat up with whatever utensil you're using until it's all evenly browned. MEAT FEST, BABY!
- Once meat is perfectly browned and crumbled, pour in heavy cream and nutmeg. Give it a nice stir so everyone in the pot can say hi. Turn the heat up a bit and bring to a boil, then immediately turn the heat down to where it was and simmer until all liquid has evaporated. Do not stir while waiting for evaporation. This takes some time (as does this entire dish), so be patient!
- We're gonna do the same thing with our wine. Add it in, stir to mingle, bring to boil, reduce to simmer, and let it evaporate completely. Again, do not stir while waiting for evaporation. It doesn't show yet, but we are building some major flavors here, my people!!!
- After the wine has completely cooked out, it's time to add in the whole tomatoes with their juices, and the tomato paste. Remove the whole tomatoes one by one, breaking them up with your fingers, before dropping them in the pot. Careful, they're squirters.
- Finally, stir in the thyme, rosemary, and parmesan.
- Eventually, the sauce is gonna start to bubble. Reduce heat until the timing between bubbles decreases. This is where we want our sauce to stay, at a lazy simmer.
- Keep it here for 2-3 hours, stirring every so often, and tasting for salt and pepper. If the sauce starts to dry out and tighten up, add about ⅓ cup water and stir. This will inevitably happen, and I end up adding water several times throughout the lazy simmer process. This is building major flavor flave.
- When ready, toss with cooked, drained pasta and remaining 2 Tablespoons cold butter. When butter has incorporated completely into sauce and everything is heated through, you're ready to enjoy the fruits of your labor and loins.
Notes
JUST THE TIPS!
1.) Set up your ‘mis en place.’ This means do what the recipe tells you to do to the individual ingredients, measure them out, and then place them in separate little bowls/dishes/what-have-you. When it’s time to build the recipe, you have everything measured and ready to go. It makes the entire process so much easier and more enjoyable!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
*GROUND ROSEMARY:
If you can’t find ground rosemary, place dried rosemary in a coffee grinder or mortar/pestle, and pulverize into a powder!
equipment:
The equipment section above contains affiliate links to products I recommend, many of which I love and use daily!
Perfect weekend afternoon cooking project with tons of flavor. Ended up forgoing the pasta and just eating the bolognese with some ricotta and ciabatta. Delicioso!
🤯 GENIUS!!!