Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe (+ Video) - Oh Sweet Basil (2024)

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We should have posted The Secret to Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe last year after we returned from Italy, but better late than never!

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Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe (+ Video) - Oh Sweet Basil (1)

We took a cooking class in Italy and I have to be honest with you, it was not our favorite. The food ended up really yummy, but the instruction was horrible. It was basically the chef flying through things himself, giving basic instruction, never letting the class join in until the very end for some quick pasta making, and at that point I was super over it.

Until he taught us the secret to authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce and we got to try it. I wanted to bathe in it. Cade already was. Ok, he wasn’t but I’m telling you, it was wonderful.

I can already read your mind, you’re wondering why we are so excited about spaghetti sauce, aren’t you? We actually aren’t, and I’m going to start at the very beginning, take you through the process and ingredients and then tell you the secret.

And no, it’s not cheese. Or fresh herbs. Ohhhhhh, thought you guessed it, didn’t you!

Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe (+ Video) - Oh Sweet Basil (2)

What’s the Difference Between Spaghetti Sauce and Bolognese?

Is there a difference between spaghetti sauce and Bolognese sauce? They look and smell the same, but think about it, do they taste the same? In order to really break it down, we need to call spaghetti sauce by what it is more commonly known as, marinara sauce.

What is Marinara Sauce?

Marinara sauce is, at its simplest form, a tomato sauce, often with herbs and veggies like carrots and onion.

What is Bolognese?

Bolognese is primarily a meat based sauce, originating in Bologna, Italy. Bolognese has just a bit of tomato for flavor, while the rest is meat and the other liquids are generally wine and milk.

What Dishes Use Bolognese Sauce?

Bolognese is used on pasta or in lasagna. Ahhh now, you’re thinking about that meaty sauce, aren’t you?

Are Ragu and Bolognese the Same Thing?

The real answer is that they are different, but to be honest, other than the fact that one usually has a little less tomatoes and uses white versus red wine, I really don’t think they are all that different. We don’t drink alcohol, so it usually gets skipped in our recipes or a cooking wine is used, as in alcohol-free cooking wine. Sounds like we’d better go back to Italy and do some more investigating.

What’s in Bolognese Sauce?

For this authentic bolognese sauce recipe, you’ll need butter, olive oil, veggies (including both fresh and canned tomatoes), tomato sauce, ground beef and Italian sausage, heavy cream, milk, cooking white wine, herbs and spices, and our secret ingredient. More on that last ingredient in a bit!

For the best bolognese recipe, I highly recommend buying the exact ingredients called for in the recipe card below. We’ve tested this recipe over and over again, and these precise ingredients make for the world’s best spaghetti bolognese.

What Kind of Meat do You Use in Bolognese Sauce?

Traditionally, Italian Bolognese sauce is made with minced beef or pork. We really like the combination of beef and sausage as it’s a little more tricky to find all of the ground meats and make your own mixture like they did in Italy.

Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe (+ Video) - Oh Sweet Basil (3)

How to Make Bolognese Sauce

You may be surprised to learn that the toughest part about making authentic bolognese sauce is having the patience to let the sauce simmer for a few hours. No really, that’s the hardest part!

  1. To make this Italian bolognese sauce, you first need to roast the fresh tomatoes. Once they’ve come out of the oven and have had time to cool a bit, blitz them up in a food processor to make tomato sauce.
  2. Then, sauté diced carrots, onion, and celery in a little butter and olive oil. Add the garlic to the pan and continue cooking until tender.
  3. Add the ground beef and Italian sausage in with the veggies and cook until browned.
  4. Once the meat has had time to brown, stir in the remaining ingredients and let the homemade bolognese sauce simmer for at least two hours, but up to an entire afternoon.

If serving over pasta, keep reading to see our suggestions for which noodle shape you should buy.

Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe (+ Video) - Oh Sweet Basil (4)

The Best Pasta for Bolognese Sauce

This really shouldn’t be such a big deal, but it kind of is. The type of pasta you buy should match the sauce and recipe you’re making. For example, can you imagine eating macaroni and cheese with spaghetti noodles? Or Alfredo with macaroni noodles? It just feels wrong doesn’t it?

When you get into the red sauces, it seems like you can really mix up the pasta shapes, and that’s true, but really pasta recipes are best when you use a certain shape. It helps to catch the sauce in the right way and the flavor and texture should work together and not against each other.

Have you ever had penne with a really delicate sauce and felt like all you could taste was that hardy noodle? Point proven

Our Least Favorite Pasta for Bolognese

Penne

Penne is our least favorite pasta to use for bolognese sauce. I find the texture too thick and heavy, and the noodle isn’t wide enough to really capture the sauce. However, I must mention that it’s a typical shape that people enjoy for Ragu sauces so don’t skip it just because of us.

Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe (+ Video) - Oh Sweet Basil (5)

Our Favorite Pasta Shapes for Ragu

These are our favorite pasta shapes for Ragu sauces (try to read each one without saying it in your best Italian accent, I triple dog dare you). We’ve listed the pasta shapes in order that we like to eat them with a ragu or bolognese sauce.

Pappardelle

Papperdelle pasta is a wider, flat egg noodle that is perfect for bolognese. This is actually what we ate it with, but in picture I had to switch to fettuccini as we were all out. It’s a light noodle, but has plenty of surface area for the heart meat sauce to sit on.

Fettuccini

Fettuccini is a more common pasta shape than pappardelle, but they are practically the same thing. The fettuccini noodle is just slightly smaller, but still has better surface area for the sauce than a spaghetti noodle. Fettuccini is a Roman or Tuscan style of pasta that is also easy to make on your own pasta machine as that’s usually the size of pasta maker you receive.

Rigatoni

Rigatoni is often mistaken as Penne, but they are not created equal. Rigatoni are a tube-shaped pasta. They are larger than penne and ziti, and sometimes are a little curved. Rigatoni usually have ridges down their length, sometimes spiraling around the tube.

Spaghetti

Spaghetti isn’t usually a go-to for Bolognese as the meat just falls off of the noodles, but in a pinch, that’s the one we would choose. It’s a thin, long noodle, though not as thin as angel hair pasta.

Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe (+ Video) - Oh Sweet Basil (6)

Can Bolognese Sauce be Made in Advance?

Oh heck yes!! Not only can Bolognese be made in advance, it should be!

Why? Because bolognese gets even better with time, so start that baby in the morning and simmer it all day long. Or make it the night before and store in the fridge, then reheat the next night for maximum flavor!

Bolognese sauce can be made ahead and kept refrigerated in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.

Can You Freeze Spaghetti Sauce?

Alright, we try to always answer the “can you freeze it” questions in these posts as we know a lot of you work hard on freezer meals. So what’s the answer? Of course!!!

I adore freezing red sauces, while I never freeze a cream sauce. Red sauces only get better with time while a white sauce will separate and gain too much water. The trick is always the same, please, please invest in a Food Saver. You will thank me all the days of your life. It’s worth it. The end.

Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe (+ Video) - Oh Sweet Basil (7)

Tips for the Best Bolognese Sauce

You’ve made it. This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for, what’s the secret to authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce?

A LEMON!

We use the zest and just a squeeze of the juice in this traditional bolognese recipe. I know, you’re shocked, but it’s true. Try it and never look back. And no, you’re not going to taste the lemon at all.

Actually, there’s one more tip, use a red, not a white onion. It makes a difference, I promise.

You’ll also notice that other than the chopped parsley as garnish, and the bay leaves there aren’t herbs at all. Trust us, this is a meat sauce, not a marinara and you don’t need them.

Helpful Products for This Bolognese Recipe

  • A simple meat chopper — Only a few dollars and soooo worth it!
  • Le Creuset Dutch Oven — More than a few dollars, but worth the investment for durability and how your food cooks and tastes. Trust us. Put it on your Christmas list.

Other Italian Sauce Recipes

Looking for more Italian Sauce recipes? Who doesn’t love Italian sauces!? Make sure you try these out the next time you are making that Italian dish:

  • Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
  • Classic Pizza Sauce
  • The BEST Pesto Recipe
  • Veggie-Packed Marinara Sauce
  • Easiest Beef Ragu
  • Simple Cilantro Pesto
  • Quick Spaghetti Sauce
  • Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
  • Creamy Avocado Pesto
  • ALL OF OUR EASY PASTA RECIPES!

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The Secret to Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe

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4.19 from 315 votes

Servings: 15

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 3 hours hrs

Total Time: 3 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Description

We should have posted The Secret to Authentic Italian Bolognese Sauce Recipe last year after we returned from Italy, but better late than never!

Ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoons Butter
  • 1 Tablespoon Olive oil
  • 2 Carrots, minced
  • 2 Celery, minced
  • 1 Onion, red, minced
  • 6 Cloves Garlic, minced
  • 1 lb Ground Beef, higher fat
  • 1 lb Italian Sausage
  • 2 Cups Tomatoes, halved
  • 2 Cans Tomato Sauce, 15 oz cans
  • 15 oz Tomatoes, fire roasted
  • 1/4 Cup Cream , heavy *SEE NOTE
  • 1/4 Cup Milk
  • 1 Dash Cooking Wine , white *SEE NOTE
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 Squeeze Lemon Juice
  • 1 Dash Nutmeg
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • Salt and Pepper, to taste
  • Parmesan Cheese, for serving

Instructions

  • Heat an oven to 425 degrees.

  • Place 2 Cups of fresh tomatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil and salt.

    2 Cups Tomatoes

  • Roast for 20 minutes or until soft and charred bits are appearing.

  • Remove the tomatoes and set aside.

  • Once cooled a little, blend the tomatoes in a blender to make a tomato sauce.

  • In a Dutch Oven, over medium high heat, add the butter and oil. Once melted, add the carrots, celery, and onion.

    1 Tablespoons Butter, 1 Tablespoon Olive oil, 2 Carrots, 2 Celery, 1 Onion

  • Saute, stirring occasionally until tender, about 5 minutes.

  • Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

    6 Cloves Garlic

  • Add the ground beef and sausage and use a meat chopper (it's only $6 and worth every penny) to ground up the meat as it's cooking.

    1 lb Ground Beef, 1 lb Italian Sausage

  • Once the meat is cooked, drain any excess grease, then start adding all other ingredients (i.e. tomatoes, lemon zest and juice, and cream).

    2 Cans Tomato Sauce, 15 oz Tomatoes, 1/4 Cup Cream, 1/4 Cup Milk, 1 Dash Cooking Wine, Zest of 1 lemon, 1 Squeeze Lemon Juice, 1 Dash Nutmeg, 2 Bay Leaves, Salt and Pepper

  • Stir to combine and simmer for 2-3 hours or up to an entire afternoon.

  • Remove the bay leaves and serve with fresh pasta and fresh parmesan cheese.

    Parmesan Cheese

Equipment

Notes

You can use whole milk instead of the milk and cream You can use real white wine, we just don't drink so we don't have that. 😉

Can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 252kcalCarbohydrates: 9gProtein: 12gFat: 19gSaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 52mgSodium: 739mgPotassium: 636mgFiber: 2gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 2265IUVitamin C: 15mgCalcium: 43mgIron: 2mg

Author: Sweet Basil

Course: 100 + BEST Easy Beef Recipes for Dinner

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FAQs

How do you deepen the flavor of Bolognese sauce? ›

The best tip for intensifying the flavour of your sauce is just to cook it slowly on a low heat for a long time. This reduces the sauce and intensifies the flavours – four hours is not uncommon for my bolognese.

What is the difference between spaghetti sauce and spaghetti bolognese? ›

Although there are some similarities between bolognese and spaghetti sauce, a classic Italian bolognese sauce is made with a meat base and includes tomatoes, dairy, red wine and spices. It's hearty and simmers longer for best flavor development. Spaghetti sauce is on the lighter side and comes together quickly.

What is the missing ingredient in Bolognese sauce? ›

If you are missing an umami note, it's possible you are missing a very common ingredient in bolognese - chicken livers. These give a meaty, almost sweet flavour. Soak them in water for a few minutes, then finely chop or pulse in a food processor. I use minced (ground) pork, beef and chicken livers.

What gives bolognese a rich flavour? ›

Milk. Adding milk to Bolognese is actually a part of the traditional method. Not only does dairy make sauces silkier and richer, but it also makes the meat more tender.

What is the best meat to use for bolognese? ›

Lastly, a trio of meats was what she told me made a good bolognese– which is why I opted to use ground beef, pork, and veal. Oh, and don't forget the pancetta to get the base of the sauce started! If you don't eat pork or veal, you can certainly opt to sub with all ground beef– but this is the way my family does it.

What is the difference between ragù and bolognese? ›

Ragu sometimes includes vegetable chunks, properly prepared Bolognese does not. Ragu typically uses red wine, while Bolognese calls for white. Bolognese uses very little tomato, while ragu sauces often feature tomatoes for most of the sauce's bulk.

Why do you put sugar in Bolognese sauce? ›

The reason for sprinkling a pinch of sugar into a simmering saucepan of tomatoes is simple: sugar cuts the acidity of the tomatoes and creates an overall more balanced sauce. The exact acid levels in tomatoes can vary quite a bit depending on whether they're fresh or canned, the tomato variety, and the time of year.

How do you add depth to Bolognese sauce? ›

Next, add the staples that no good Bolognese is without

"Finely chopped carrots, celery and onions. I know it doesn't sound like it, but these are the things that give proper depth of flavour." "Crisp up some bacon or pancetta first. If you want a bit of a spiciness then chorizo also works well.

Should I put beef stock in bolognese? ›

beef stock/broth instead of stock cubes – to add extra flavour into the sauce and make it watery at the start so we can “boil” the pasta. In classic Bolognese, we use stock cubes and add no water (unless doing a slow cook).

Do you simmer bolognese with the lid on or off? ›

Lid off will allow extra moisture in the sauce to evaporate and thicken it. So, if you want a thicker sauce, lid off. Thinner, perhaps less strong flavored, lid on. Super low simmer and slow, even heating is best for a long cooking tomato sauce.

Why put milk in Bolognese sauce? ›

According to our Food Director Amira, not only does milk add a rich flavour to the bolognese, but it also “helps cut through the acidity of the tomatoes and red wine”. She adds: “It also makes the mince meat nice and tender, creating that melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness.”

What do Italians call bolognese? ›

Bolognese sauce, known in Italian as ragù alla bolognese or ragù bolognese (called ragù in the city of Bologna, ragó in Bolognese dialect), is a meat-based sauce in Italian cuisine, typical of the city of Bologna.

Can I use diced tomatoes instead of crushed in bolognese? ›

Diced tomatoes can be used in place of crushed tomatoes, but you'll need to increase the cooking time substantially to try to break down the chunks of tomato. You could also run your diced tomatoes through a food processor and add a bit of tomato paste to them to achieve a result closer to crushed tomatoes.

How to add depth of flavour to bolognese? ›

Just add seasoning and the flavour will be completely different from what you're used to. You can add various herbs, too. Try a teaspoon of dried Italian mixed herbs (added at the start) or a tablespoon of fresh, chopped oregano (added towards the end) in the meat sauce.

Why does my bolognese taste bland? ›

Your spaghetti sauce may taste bland due to insufficient seasoning. Try adding more salt, herbs (like basil, oregano, or thyme), and other flavor enhancers like garlic, onion, or red pepper flakes.

How do you darken Bolognese sauce? ›

Simmer your bolognese for 5-6 minutes until it takes on a darker, richer colour and the tomatoes have no metallic taste.

How do you add depth of flavor to sauce? ›

Briny ingredients like olives or capers are another way to brighten up your pasta sauce while also introducing texture and depth of flavor. Roughly chop a handful and stir them into your sauce while it's heating up on the stove.

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