Beef Bolognese Sauce Recipe

Marcella Hazan Bolognese Meat Sauce Recipe — Photo: Photo and Styling by Julia Gartland

Active Time:

30 mins

Total Time:

3 hrs 30 mins

Yield:

6 servings

Ragù, as the Bolognese call their celebrated meat sauce, is characterized by mellow, gentle, comfort flavors. Marcella Hazan wrote that any cook can achieve a great ragù by being careful about a few basic points.

First, the meat should not be from too lean a cut; the more marbled it is, the richer the ragù it makes. The most desirable cut of beef is the neck portion of the chuck. Next, salt the meat immediately when sautéing it to extract its juices for the benefit of the sauce. Cook the meat in milk to protect it from the acidic bite of the wine and tomatoes you'll add to the pot. Do not use a demi-glace or other stock concentrates that tip the balance of flavors toward harshness.

Finally, be sure to use a pot that retains heat. Earthenware is preferred in Bologna and by most cooks in Emilia-Romagna, but enameled cast-iron pans or a pot with a heavy bottom that's composed of layers of steel alloys are also satisfactory. Serve this sauce over fettuccine or your pasta of choice.

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Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter, plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup carrot, chopped
3/4 pound ground beef chuck (see prefatory note)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup whole milk
Whole nutmeg
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juices
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds pasta
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, for serving

Directions

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Gather all the ingredients.
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Put the oil, butter, and chopped onion in the pot; turn the heat on to medium.
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Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring the vegetables to coat them well.
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Add the ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well, and cook until the beef has lost its raw, red color.
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Add the milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating — about 1/8 teaspoon — of nutmeg and stir.
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Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes; stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well.
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When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface.
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Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, continue the cooking, adding 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.
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Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter.
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Serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side.

Make ahead

If you cannot watch the sauce for a 3- to 4-hour stretch, you can turn off the heat whenever you need to leave, and resume cooking later on, as long as you complete the sauce within the same day. Once done, you can refrigerate the sauce in a tightly sealed container for 3 days, or you can freeze it. Before tossing with pasta, reheat it, letting it simmer for 15 minutes and stirring it once or twice.

Notes

Recommended pasta: There is no more perfect union in all gastronomy than the marriage of Bolognese ragù with homemade Bolognese tagliatelle. Ragù is delicious with tortellini, and irreproachable with such boxed, dried pasta as rigatoni, conchiglie, or fusilli. Curiously, considering the popularity of the dish in the United Kingdom and countries of the Commonwealth, meat sauce in Bologna is never served over spaghetti.

Bolognese Meat Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make ahead

Notes

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