Uncover the Secret to The Best Hearty Bolognese Sauce

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You know when you taste a sauce that’s just life-changing? When I first tried Bolognese sauce, my mind was blown away! I’ve adapted it a couple of times, and each time just gets better and better! I have to say I’ve found my ultimate Hearty Bolognese Sauce recipe!

If you know me, I’m not the biggest fan of veggies. You’ll see some here and there in my recipes. Typically I love my tomatoes and onions, and green peas are my favourite green veggie. I don’t know about you, but I consider potatoes a vegetable, and as you may see from all my French fry recipes, I love potatoes!

Maybe you’re not such a picky eater like I am but you have little ones that are. If you want to get kiddos to eat their veggies, then this dish will easily become a family-favourite! Hint hint, there are a ton of veggies in this sauce but you can’t even taste them! Yep, it’s loaded not only with tomato goodness, but so many veggies went in here! Probably a month’s worth or more for me!

When I had my “aha moment” with this recipe, I made the biggest pot ever. This Hearty Bolognese Sauce recipe came to be because I had a ton of veggies to finish. I was experimenting with a ratatouille dish (based on the above paragraph, aren’t you happy with how many veggies I had been eating?), and I had so many leftover veggies. What to do with them?

What Is Bolognese Sauce?

Isn’t a Bolognese sauce just a fancy way of phrasing “meat sauce” you may be wondering? I’ve wondered that too! What’s the difference between a Bolognese and a ragu? They seem to be used interchangeably!

Well, no not quite. “Bolognese sauce” originates from Bologna, Italy. Ragu originates from Naples, Italy, and ragu is actually the Italian word for “meat sauce.” The main elements in both sauces are the sofritto - which is onions, celery and carrots, tomatoes - and the meat. Bolognese is actually a type of Ragu, called “Ragu alla Bolognese,” but it uses white wine and a minimal amount of tomatoes, whereas “ragu” uses red wine and lots of tomatoes. Additionally, Bolognese uses milk or cream in the sauce. Neither of these sauces are heavily seasoned.

In contrast, I believe an American-style meat sauce is literally just that - a tomato-based sauce where the centre of attention is the meat. I don’t think there are really any rules to a meat sauce!

My hearty Bolognese sauce recipe has most of the elements of the traditional recipe, but since I love tomatoes I’ll be adding much more! I’ve also got in extra veggies here because I find they add a lot of body to the sauce that nicely complement the meat. Furthermore, I’ll be adding a little extra seasoning to make this Bolognese truly special!

Are you curious to give this a try? Let’s get onto the recipe now then!

Ingredients for This Hearty Bolognese Sauce

Here’s what we’ll be using in our Hearty Bolognese Sauce. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD, which has all ingredient measurements so you can scale the recipe to your needs! You can easily adapt the quantities of ingredients based on how much sauce you want to make.

• Butter: Used to sauté our vegetables.
• Ground beef: I used extra lean ground beef here to keep the authenticity of the Bolognese. If you don’t eat beef, feel free to substitute with pork. If you’d like to add both proteins, then go for it and let me know in the comments what you think! I’ve read Bolognese variations that also use ground veal.
• Vegetables: The “sofritto” of Bolognese consists of onions, carrots, and celery. These are the core veggies of the Bolognese sauce. In my version, I’m also adding zucchini and eggplant to add a little more body.
• Tomatoes: A traditional Bolognese sauce only uses a minimal amount of tomatoes (1/2 what I’m using technically). I’m sorry, but I’m Anadi and I love my tomatoes! I’ll be using a combination of Passata, which are strained tomatoes, and canned San Marzano tomatoes. The passata will help to create the base of the sauce, and I crushed the San Marzano tomatoes with my hands to add extra texture to the sauce. If you’re a tomato lover like I am, you’re going to love this version of Bolognese!
• Wine: Traditionally, a white wine is used. You can use red wine if that’s all you have, and this is used in a typical “ragu.” If you don’t want to cook with wine, you can use beef broth.
• Nutmeg: I love nutmeg, I add it to my Béchamel White Sauce! Hazan’s recipe uses nutmeg, so I’ll be incorporating that into my Bolognese sauce. The nutmeg really makes the sauce aromatic, and a little definitely goes a long way!
• Milk: Adds a rich flavour depth to the sauce in addition to tenderizing the meat.
• Bay leaf: Optional, but it adds that extra something something… you know? I love the flavour that comes from bay leaf!
• Salt & pepper: To taste.

Tips for the Tastiest Bolognese Sauce

• Each step requires patience and care. Simmer the sauce as gently as you can for the best tasting sauce.
• Take the time to finely dice each vegetable, onion, carrot, celery, eggplant and zucchini. Chopping the veggies in a food processor vs hand chopping will result in a different and noticeable consistency.
• Purchase the best quality of meat you can find, organic or your local butcher would be best.
• Crush the whole San Marzano tomatoes by hand to introduce some texture and pulpy surprise while enjoying the sauce.
• If you are really pressed on time, in small batches, add roughly diced veggies to a food processor and pulse a few times to finely chop.
• For a more authentic version of a bolognese, cut the tomatoes by half.
• If you x2 or x3 the recipe, that will likely increase the cooking time as well. More to cook, more to simmer, more to enjoy!

How to Make Hearty Bolognese Sauce

1. Finely chop the veggies and set them aside.
2. Melt butter in a large pot and add onions, celery and carrots. Stir and cook until the veggies soften and turn sweet.
3. Add eggplant and zucchini, stir and cook until the veggies start to soften and release some of their moisture.
4. Add the meat and break any lumps with a wooden spoon while continuously stirring. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Once the meat is no longer pink, add the milk. Bring the milk to a simmer, turn down the heat and cook until all the milk has simmered away.
6. Add a fresh grating of nutmeg.
7. Add the wine, bring to a simmer and cook until all the wine has simmered away.
8. While the wine is simmering, transfer all the canned San Marzano tomatoes to a large bowl and lightly crush the whole tomatoes with your hands.
9. Add the hand crushed tomatoes to the pot, along with the passata. Stir well, season with salt, add bay leaf and bring up to a simmer.
10. Once the sauce reaches a simmer, lower the heat so that the sauce has the laziest of simmers and cook until the sauce reduced and thickened. The sauce is ready when you start seeing some grease along the sides of the pot and the tomatoes have sweetened. At this stage you can simmer it as fast as you want, however, the slower you go, the better the end product will be.

Troubleshooting - What Do I Do if My Sauce Is…