best natural foods

Bolognese sauce recipe - complex flavours

Among pasta recipes, this Bolognese sauce recipe is relatively complex as it uses many different ingredients and the preparation time is long.

But it is still "easy" - you don't require great skill to prepare a great bolognese sauce. You just have more things to do, that's all. None of the steps are difficult.

The fact that a Bolognese sauce recipe is complicated is all the more reason to make your own. Because unless you dine in a really top rate - and expensive - Italian restaurant, chances are you will get a simplified, watered-down version of this classic authentic Italian pasta dish.

Bolognese is probably the most well-known pasta dish, served not only in Italian restaurants but also in various places that sell cheap Western food. In Singapore, for example, you can order a spaghetti bolognese even at hawker centres, where a plate might cost just S$5 or less.

But have you eaten a really good pasta Bolognese? Not me. At least not until I tried this authentic bolognese sauce recipe.

In the past, the few bolognese pasta dishes that I tried were little more than minced meat with tomato sauce. They tasted very ordinary and uninspiring.

So imagine my surprise when I did some research and discovered that an authentic Italian bolognese recipe requires a whole long list of ingredients, and very long cooking. Just looking at the recipe was enough to tell me that here is something truly special. The final result did not disappoint.

Note: Long, slow cooking brings out the full flavour of this bolognese sauce recipe. So prepare this meat sauce in advance and allow for at least two hours of cooking, preferably three to four hours or the longer.

Bolognese sauce is commonly served with sSpaghetti, but works equally well with other medium to large pasta shapes, such as fettucine, linguine, penne, fusilli, etc. It can serve as a sauce for baked lasagne.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6):

  • 50g salted butter

  • 200g pancetta / bacon
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 stick calery
  • 2 cloves garlic

  • 500g minced beef (or 250g each of minced beef and minced pork)

  • 2 cans (800 g) chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 2 cups beef stock or water
  • 250ml dry red wine
  • 1 bay leaf
  • generous pinch of sea salt / ground black pepper
  • small pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

  • 300g dried spaghetti or other pasta, cooked according to instructions

  • 50g freshly grated Parmiggiano / Parmesan cheese (for serving)

Method:

  1. Finely cut / dice the pancetta / bacon, onion, carrot, celery and garlic.
  2. Heat half of the butter in a heavy pan. Add the bacon and fry until golden. Add the onion, carrot, celeryand garlic and cook over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often.
  3. Increase the heat. When the pan is hot, add the beef (or beef and pork), using a wooden spoon to break up any lumps. Fry until meat is brown, about 2 or 3 minutes.
  4. Add tomato, tomato puree, beef stock, wine, salt, nutmeg and other seasoning ingredients. Reduce heat to very low, cover and cook for at least two hours. Check the liquid occasionally and add more water / beef stock if necessary to prevent the sauce from drying out.

Variations:

There are many variations to this Bolognese sauce recipe although it remains basically a tomato-based, meat sauce recipe. Possible variations include:

  • Use minced lamb / mutton for a stronger flavour. Personally, I like the beef / pork combination best. Some bolognese sauce recipes call for minced veal but I don't recommend this because veal is actually the meat of a very sick animal suffering from extreme anemia. Minced chicken probably does not work well as this meat sauce needs a strong flavour. But if you like... why not?

  • Vary the amount and the types of vegetables. I have seen, for example, bolognese sauce recipes that use two large carrots and two large onions. Also, some omit the celery and the garlic. Feel free to experiment. But for authenticity, leave in the carrots and onions.

  • Cook with olive oil instead of butter. The majority of recipes that I've come across use butter.
  • Vary the herbal seasoning using, for example, fresh parsley or dried oregano.

And so on. This recipe may also be baked, as I have done in a baked Bolognese sauce recipe.


A Chinese variant

There is, however, a more unusual variation that I would like to introduce you to. I did say in my introduction to pasta recipes that this section is unique, didn't I?

This comes from Northern China. Like Bolognese, it is also a meat sauce recipe, using minced meat such as pork or beef. The sauce base, however, is not tomato. Instead, it uses oriental fermented bean sauce such as miso or, for the convenience of Westerners, ready-made Hoisin sauce.

Click here for the "Chinese bolognese sauce recipe".




New! Comments

Have your say about what you just read! Kindly leave a comment in the box below.

BEST NATURAL FOODS

Carbohydrates
(5 articles)
Cooking oils
(23 articles)
Diet plans (13 articles)
Fiber (3 articles)
Fish (3 articles)
Grains (17 articles)
Pasta (10 articles)
Pasta recipes
(>40 recipes)
Salt (11 articles)
Seaweeds
(11 articles)
Soy products
(14 articles)
Vegetables (1 article)
Water (6 articles)
More sections to come
RELATED WEBSITES
Natural Cancer Cures
Flu treatments
Stop Trans fats
PASTA RECIPES

AGLIO OLIO sauce
ALFREDO sauce
Alfredo - authentic
Alfredo Shrimp
Alfredo Spinach
AMATRICIANA sauce
ANCHOVIES
Anchovies + tomato
Anchovies + capers, olives, chilli
ARRABBIATA sauce
Arrabbiata
Arrabbiata - simple
ASIAN-STYLE PASTA
Century egg + Spinach
Chinese "Bolognese"
Chinese Garlic Chicken
Itlog na Maalat / Salted Eggs
Itlog na Maalat / Salted Eggs II
Natto + Nori seaweed
Tempeh + Spinach
BACON / PANCETTA
Amatriciana sauce
Bacon + Ricotta cheese
Authentic Carbonara
BOLOGNESE
Bolognese
Bolognese - baked
Chinese "Bolognese"
CARBONARA
Authentic Carbonara
Chicken Carbonara
CHICKEN PASTA
Chinese Garlic Chicken
Cream Garlic Chicken
CLAMS / VONGOLE
Red clam sauce
White clam sauce
EGGPLANT sauce
FRIED PASTA
Fried-pasta with Shrimp
Simple fried pasta
GREMOLATA
HERBS
Aglio Olio - Garlic + Oil
Lemon, Garlic + Herbs
Ricotta + Herbs
ITALIAN - Authentic Italian Pasta recipes
MARINARA
Seafood Marinara
MEAT SAUCE / RAGU
See Bolognese above
PESTO
Basil pesto
Cilantro Pesto
PUTTANESCA sauce
RICOTTA cheese sauce
Ricotta + Bacon
Ricotta + Herbs
Ricotta + Salmon in pasta shells
SALAD PASTA
Lemon, Garlic + Herbs
Salted Eggs Salad I
Salted Eggs Salad II
See also Pesto and Ricotta above
SALMON
Salmon Gremolata
Salmon + Ricotta in pasta shells
SHRIMP
Alfredo Shrimp
Fried-pasta with Shrimp
Garlic Shrimp
Garlic Shrimp w cream
SPINACH
Alfredo Spinach
Century egg + Spinach
Tempeh + Spinach
TOMATO-based sauce
Amatriciana
Anchovies + tomato
Anchovies + capers, olives. chilli
Arrabbiata
Clam sauce / Vongole
Bolognese
Bolognese - baked
Eggplant + Tomato
Puttanesca
Seafood Marinara
VONGOLE
See clams above