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Ragù alla bolognese (Bolognese Sauce)

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time2 hours
Total Time3 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

For the soffritto:

  • 1 large sweet yellow onion
  • 1-2 medium carrots
  • 1-2 stalks of celery
  • 100 g 3-1/2 oz pancetta
  • 2 Tbs. butter mixed with 2 Tbs. oil

followed by:

  • 1 kilo 2 lbs. ground beef, or a mixture of equal parts ground beef and pork
  • 100 ml 1/2 cup milk
  • 100 ml 1/2 cup red or white wine
  • 540 g 14 oz puréed tomatoes

Instructions

  • Finely chop the onion, celery, carrot and pancetta together (you can use of food processor if you like but use the pulse function and make sure not to go too fine). Sauté these chopped ingredients very gently in olive oil and butter until soft and sweet. Take your time as this step as developing the full flavor of the soffritto is critically important to the ultimate success of the dish.
  • Once your soffritto is done, add the ground meat(s) and allow them to slowly insaporire (absorb the flavor of the soffritto). Stir constantly so that the meat(s) and the soffritto are throughly mixed and the chopped meat does not clump together.
  • As soon as the meat loses its raw color—it should not caramelize at all—add a bit of milk and allow it to evaporate. Then add a splash of wine (some recipes call for white, others for red—personally I prefer white) and allow it to evaporate as well.
  • Then add tomato purée (many recipes call for tomato paste diluted in water or broth), mix well and allow the sauce to simmer, partially covered, over very gently heat (a small bubble should appear at the surface of the sauce every so often) for at least 2 hours. I actually find that 2 hours is not nearly enough to fully develop flavor: 4 or even 6 hours is more like it.