What is Bolognese?
A traditional Bolognese sauce requires hours of simmering and careful attention.
But sometimes we don’t have hours and we just want a sauce that’s maybe not as spectacular as it could be, but still quite good enough.
This simplified Bolognese sauce takes about an hour to make, instead of several, but still delivers on wonderful flavor!
Instead of starting the sauce with pancetta, which would be traditional, we use butter, which melts quickly and provides plenty of flavor.
A key ingredient in the sauce is milk, whole milk. It’s standard for a Bolognese sauce and important for the flavor and creaminess of the sauce.
Quick Pasta Bolognese Sauce Recipe
PrintIngredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/4 (570g) lbs ground chuck
- 1/2 cup (60g) finely chopped onion
- 1/2 cup (60g) finely chopped celery
- 1/2 cup (60g) finely chopped carrot
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup (118ml) full bodied red wine (optional)
- 1 cup (236ml) whole milk (or low fat milk with a tablespoon of cream)
- 1 cup (236ml) crushed tomatoes
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
1 Make the soffritto base with onions, celery, and carrots, add tomato paste: Heat butter in a large sauté pan on medium high. Add the finely chopped onion, celery, and carrots. Sprinkle a little salt over everything. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 5 minutes.
Add the tomato paste and stir to combine, cook for another minute or so.
2 Add the ground beef: Add the ground beef to the onions, celery, and carrots, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon as you add it to the pan. Again, sprinkle a little salt over everything.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, about 15 minutes.
3 Deglaze the pan with wine: Stir in the wine (if using), scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let this boil down by half.
4 Stir in tomatoes, milk, then simmer: Stir in the tomatoes. Slowly stir in the milk. Increase the heat to bring the mixture to a simmer, then lower the heat to maintain a low simmer.
Simmer uncovered about 20 minutes. Add a little water if the sauce ever begins to dry out. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
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Receip sounds good. Do you half the quantities for 2 people of will it freeze? Janice
Love it! My modifications based on what I had were garlic butter, and kefir instead of whole milk – super tasty!!!
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We made it with ground turkey as that’s what we had on hand, DELICIOUS!
I usually use Marcella Hazan’s recipe and have for years. But I do t always hay the 3+ hours that requires, and when my stressed-out 13-yr-old wanted Bolognese, I turned to this. Is it as good as Marcella’s ? No. But it hits the same flavor notes ( I did add a little nutmeg, to be fair) and it is REALLY good…nice to have this in my back pocket for When it’s a “meat sauce ” night but it’s already 5PM and we’d like to eat before midnight lol…thank you!
Elise — I’m allergic to dairy and can’t use whole milk. What would you recommend as a substitute? I usually use soy milk for things like coffee and cereal, but I don’t know how it could cook up in a recipe like this. Thanks!