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Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese Sauce

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Hey Friends,

Happy Tuesday!

Have you ever had a day you don’t know what to fix for dinner? Last night was that night! I thawed hamburger out, thinking hamburgers would be great for dinner BUT I never did go get hamburger buns. I thought about making my spaghetti sauce but I didn’t have a couple of the ingredients for it either! We have all been there. So I did what I assume everyone else does and that is check Google.

I truly love that we can do that! Life got so much simpler because of Google, lol. I no longer have my mom to call up and ask what would you make with these ingredients, you know!

1. Cook onions, carrots, and celery in butter

I came across Bolognese Sauce and truthfully, it has been on my bucket list to make for quite some time now. No time like the present, believe it or not, I had all the ingredients, win-win!

2. Mix the hamburger with the vegetables

I can tell you right now it is a very rich sauce. I have never had it before and the whole fam loved it as much as I did and I think you will too!

3. Cook until hamburger is no longer pink

I only changed a few ingredients and it still was one of the best sauces I have ever had. The recipe I found was from Marcella Hazan and adapted from The New York Times. It has received about 11K reviews and to tell you the truth, in my opinion, it is that good!

4. Add in cream

I hope you give it a try! Here is the link where I got it from. Or you can continue to read it here with a couple of adaptions. There are not many seasonings in this dish but it packs in the flavor. I thought there would be a lot more than listed but nope, salt, pepper, nutmeg. I added another ingredient. Better Than Bouillion.

5. Add in tomato sauce

My adaptions: I used heavy cream instead of whole milk, 1/2 cup Chicken broth, and 1/2 cup wine instead of all wine but you could use all wine or all chicken broth, and Better Than Bouillion.

6. Mix, keep simmering until all liquid is pretty much gone

It takes a long time to simmer the broth down. Each time you add a liquid, it needs to simmer and I had mine on medium-low to medium to speed it up a little. It worked and it reduced very nicely. I started this a 2:30 and by the time my husband got home from work (5:30), it had reduced to where I wanted it. I think some of the reviews said you could speed this up and enjoy it after an hour but if you have the time, I recommend taking it slow!

7. Top with parm cheese

Here is my version, enjoy!

Marcella Hazan's Bolognese Sauce

This sauce is traditionally slow-simmered with just a handful of standard ingredients, including beef and or pork, (carrots, celery, onion), tomato sauce, milk, wine, salt and pepper.
Print Recipe
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 1 small onion diced
  • 1 cup celery diced
  • 1 cup carrot diced
  • 1 lb. ground beef OR 1part pork to 2 parts beef
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • 1 tbsp. better than chicken bouillion
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup dry wine I used 1/2 cup chardonnay, 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1 ½ cups crushed tomatoes Pureed mine in a blender
  • 1 ¼ - 1 ½ lbs. pasta
  • freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Notes

Turn the heat to medium. Melt the butter, add the oil, add the chopped onion to the pan and cook until the onion is translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat them well.
Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat, stirring well, and cook until the beef is cooked all the way through.
Add your heavy cream and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently until it has bubbled away completely. Add the nutmeg, and stir.
Add the wine and chicken broth, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomato sauce and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients. When the tomato sauce begins 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. Check the taste and add more salt if needed or chicken bouillon. 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, add 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth 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. We let it reduce quite a bit but if you like it a little saucier, don't reduce it as much! When finished, add a little freshly grated parm cheese.

 

 

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Comments

  1. CoCo says

    This looks so good, Cheryl! I can’t wait to make this for my family. They’re definitely picky eaters but I think even this would pass the test. Thanks so much for sharing. Hug and happy weekend, CoCo

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