Meat Bolognese Sauce

A hearty, slow cooked meat sauce to go over pasta. Plan ahead, it needs to simmer for hours.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword bolognese sauce, meat sauce, pasta with bolognese

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 5 hours

Total Time 5 hours 20 minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup diced pancetta
1 medium onion diced
2 ribs celery diced
3 small carrots diced
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
1 lb ground beef or veal
½ pound ground turkey (pork would be more traditional)
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt
2 bay leaves
4 sage leaves or ½ tsp ground sage
1 cup white wine or 750 ml bottle
1-2 cups water
1 cup tomato sauce (or whole tomatoes and sauce whirred up)
2 cups chicken or beef stock
½ cup milk
Cooked pasta – Tagliatelle and pasta water saved
Grated Parmigiana

Instructions

In a large deep pan (chicken fryer or Dutch oven), gently heat the oil and add in the pancetta. Fry the pancetta until it starts to release it’s own fat and browns slightly. Add in the onion, celery and carrots.
Once the vegetables start to soften, add the garlic and stir through.
Add the meat and break up into very small mince. No large chunks! Stir and brown until there is no pink meat. Add the nutmeg and salt, bay leaves, sage and white wine. Cook until the wine is well reduced, and alcohol has burned offw
Add the tomato sauce and stock, stir well.
Turn heat to low and cover. Simmer for 3-4 hours. Add more water if it starts to get dry. By the end of cooking, it should be fairly dry, and all water cooked out.
Still over low heat, add the milk and simmer briefly. Add a bit of pasta water to the sauce if it is too dry.
Serve over cooked pasta. Grate parmigiana cheese over top.

Recipe Notes

Red wine may be used instead of white wine. Beef/veal ground meat and ground pork are traditionally used. Some versions do use skirt steak cut up finely in place of ground meat.

Every nonna has their own version!