Spaghetti Bolognese

Traditional Spaghetti Bolognese

Growing up, my mother never really cooked Italian food. I think our closest encounter with Italian cuisine was Pizza Hut, and I loved it! When she did attempt any Italian food, it was likely to have been tainted with some coriander (cilantro) and eaten with chopsticks.

This might go some length in explaining why, for many years, I failed miserably in attempting to recreate a decent Bolognese Sauce at home.

No matter how many different recipes I tried, how expensive the red wine or for how long I simmered the sauce, a bottle of ready-made bolognese sauce from the supermarket always tasted better.

And I accepted this defeat on the grounds that, well, I wasn’t Italian; that certain dishes were out of my realm because of my gene pool. Until I tried the following recipe.

Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe

This particular recipe for a traditional Spaghetti Bolognese caught my eye because it contains neither red wine, stock nor bacon, ingredients which are so commonly found in a traditional beef ragu.

I attempted this Spaghetti Bolognese recipe out of curiosity because the list of ingredients looked quite minimal compared to many popular recipes, and I have never looked back since.

For me, this is the Bolognese Sauce which I have been trying to recreate at home for so many years.

Why This Recipe Works

We all know that the secret to a great tasting dish is to use the best quality ingredients. I think this is the best Bolognese Sauce recipe because:

• It uses good quality, freshly ground beef to give a rich flavour to the sauce.
• The Bolognese Sauce is slow-cooked on the stove for 2 to 3 hours to allow the flavours to intensify and the sauce to thicken.
• Fresh herbs add a brightness to the Bolognese Sauce.

What Type of Meat to Use for a Bolognese Sauce

Whenever a recipe calls for minced meat (ground meat), I always go out of my way to make my own, and I have been doing this for as long as I can remember.

In fact, my mother never bought minced meat either. I have vivid recollections of her mincing her own meat with a menacing Chinese meat cleaver in both hands, rapidly hacking away with such aggression that you wouldn’t want to disturb her on such occasions.

I used to mince meat in my food processor; it does a decent job but the meat is likely to be very finely chopped in this method, almost paste-like if you process it for too long.

The better approach is to use a proper meat grinder, and KitchenAid owners will rejoice in knowing that the meat grinder attachment does a fabulous job in grinding meat in coarse or fine textures.

The simplest approach, of course, is to ask your butcher to grind the meat for you. This is what I do when I plan to make a double or triple batch of this Bolognese Sauce.

And the reason why I think freshly-ground mince tastes best is because you can choose the cut of meat yourself; selecting a good-quality cut of meat means that you can control both the flavour (some cuts of meat taste better than others) and know exactly what it is that you are eating.

For this Spaghetti Bolognese recipe, I like to use a cut of beef which the French and Swiss call entrecôte, which is termed as rib-eye or sirloin in other parts of the world, or even beef brisket or a similar stewing beef. These are all flavourful cuts of beef with a good amount of fat or marbling, making it a good choice for a bolognese sauce which needs a robust, meaty base.

How to Make Spaghetti Bolognese

A Bolognese Sauce is based on an Italian ragu, which is a slow-cooked meat sauce made with tomatoes.

Slow-cooking allows the ingredients in the sauce to meld and intensify, as well as giving the meat a chance to become incredibly tender and almost dissolve into the sauce.

Of course, it is possible to make a Bolognese Sauce in 30 minutes or less, but it won’t be as rich, and the meat will still have a bit of bite.

So where possible, I recommend cooking the Bolognese Sauce for at least 2 hours for maximum flavour, and I also recommend doubling or tripling the recipe because it is that good!

Step 1

Start by blitzing the vegetables in a food processor. Finely chopping the vegetables this way allows them to literally melt into the sauce later (and your kids won’t notice that you snuck healthy stuff into this dish).

Step 2

Cook the vegetables over a medium heat until they have softened. You don’t want the vegetables to brown or caramelise, so adding a good pinch of salt will draw out some moisture and help the vegetables to cook gently.

Step 3

Next, add the minced beef and cook until there is no trace of pink left. If you have a small pan, you might want to do this in batches, otherwise the meat will steam instead of fry and become golden brown. And you want the meat to brown properly because this caramelisation adds flavour to the sauce.

Step 4

Stir in the tomato paste until all of the meat is coated. As tomato paste is highly concentrated, you need to cook off the raw flavour for a few minutes.

Step 5

Then add the canned tomatoes, together with some sugar, salt and pepper. It might look like a lot of tomatoes, but as you will be slow-cooking this bolognese sauce for about 2 hours, some of the liquid will evaporate during this time and the sauce will thicken considerably.

Also, the generous amount of tomatoes will cook down to produce a really flavoursome tomato sauce.

Step 6

Many bolognese sauce recipes call for dried herbs, but I like to use fresh herbs. Plus, they seem to grow wild on my balcony and I need every excuse to use them where possible.

I don’t bother to chop the herbs ; I simply place large twigs – stems and leaves – directly into the sauce for maximum infusion of flavour. After 2 hours, I try to fish out the stems, although most of the oregano leaves will have fallen off, and this is totally fine.

Step 7

During the cooking time, make sure you give the bolognese sauce a good stir now and then to make sure nothing is sticking to the pan. If the sauce is thickening too much, you should also add some boiling water to thin the sauce to your liking.

How to Serve Spaghetti Bolognese

I always recommend cooking the pasta in the Bolognese Sauce for a few minutes before serving, thereby allowing the pasta to absorb some of the flavours from the sauce.

This means that you will have to carefully estimate how much pasta and how much sauce you will need as any leftover pasta cooked with the sauce will become thick and gluggy when reheated.

For extra savouriness, I recommend grating fresh parmesan over the dish just before serving, as well as a good sprinkle of fresh herbs to liven up the dish.

Freezer Tips

As mentioned above, whenever I cook this Bolognese Sauce, I always make a double or triple batch.

Once cooled, I portion the sauce into serves of 3 to 4 (about 3 large ladles), and freeze the sauce in vacuum-sealed bags, but ziplock freezer bags would work just as well.

I like to freeze the sauce in flat bags for easy storage in the freezer, and also for quicker defrosting.

The Bolognese Sauce can keep in the freezer for 3 to 6 months (longer if vacuum-sealed).

FAQs

• How long should I cook Bolognese Sauce? A Bolognese Sauce generally requires at least 2 hours of slow simmering to allow the flavours to develop and for the meat to tenderise. You can, of course, cook a bolognese sauce in less time, but the flavours will not be as rich. That is why Bolognese Sauces tend to taste so much better the next day!
• How long does Bolognese Sauce last in the fridge? Bolognese Sauce can be kept in a covered container in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 days.
• How long does Bolognese Sauce last in the freezer? Bolognese sauce can be stored in air-tight containers or freezer bags in the freezer for up to 3 months. Food frozen in vacuum-sealed bags can keep for much longer.
• How much Bolognese Sauce per person? This, of course, varies from person to person! But I estimate roughly 1 cup (250 ml or 1 large ladle) per adult.
• How to thicken Bolognese Sauce? A bolognese sauce will thicken as it cooks, and the longer it cooks, the thicker the sauce will become. You should cook a bolognese sauce by allowing it to simmer on low to medium heat, but if you are in a hurry and are trying to make a “quick” bolognese sauce, you can thicken the sauce by simmering it on a higher heat.
• How to make Bolognese Sauce with passata? I recommend making bolognese sauce with canned diced tomatoes because the tomatoes add some texture to the sauce. However, you can also use tomato passata – bottled tomatoes which have been smoothly blended – for a smoother sauce.
• How to make Bolognese Sauce without wine? My recipe below does not contain any wine. Some recipes for Bolognese Sauce include wine which acts as a sweetener, but I prefer to use sugar because I find it to be an easier way to control the sweetness of the sauce, and also to control the flavour of the sauce; different wines can vary in taste and which affect the final taste of the sauce.
• What if my Bolognese Sauce is too sweet? Canned tomatoes vary in sweetness, so you should try to taste the sauce before adding any sugar. But if your Bolognese Sauce is too sweet, try to balance it out with a dash of red wine vinegar.
• Which pasta to serve with Bolognese Sauce? The choice is endless! You can’t go wrong with spaghetti or fettucine, but short and ribbed pastas (such as penne rigata or rigatoni) also work well with a meaty Bolognese Sauce.

Update

This recipe was first published on 9 December 2013. It has been updated with new photos and more comprehensive recipe notes.SaveSave

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