# Bolognese Sauce

A classic Bolognese sauce recipe from Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking," heralded as a gold standard by many readers.

- Servings: 6 servings
- Total time: 240 min
- Cuisine: Italian
- Category: Drink
- Language: en

## Ingredients

- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 0.5 cup chopped onion
- 0.66 cup chopped celery
- 0.66 cup chopped carrot
- 0.75 pound ground beef chuck (or you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts beef)
- Salt
- Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
- 1 cup whole milk
- Whole nutmeg
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1.5 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
- 1.25 pounds pasta
- Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano at the table

## Instructions

1. Put the oil, butter, and chopped onion in the pot and turn the heat to medium.
2. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent.
3. Add the chopped celery and carrot and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat them well.
4. Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper.
5. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well, and cook until the beef has lost its raw, red color.
6. Add milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely.
7. Add a tiny grating — about 1/8 teaspoon — of nutmeg, and stir.
8. Add the wine and let it simmer until it has evaporated.
9. Add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well.
10. When the tomatoes begin 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.
11. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time.
12. While the sauce is cooking, if it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat, add 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary to prevent sticking.
13. At the end, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce.
14. Stir to mix the fat into the sauce, taste, and correct for salt.
15. Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter.
16. Serve with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano on the side.

## Equipment

- pot
- fork

## Tips

- When sauce is cooking, add 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary if it starts to dry out, but ensure no water is left at the end and fat separates from the sauce.
- At the end of cooking, stir to mix the fat into the sauce and correct for salt.

## Source

- Original video: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015181-marcella-hazans-bolognese-sauce
- Recipe page: https://www.cliprecipe.com/recipe/8ad83868-5652-4aee-bf52-e20b141b5a9e
- Extracted: 2025-08-14

Extracted from the video by Clip Recipe (https://www.cliprecipe.com). Quantities and steps are as stated or shown in the video. Site guide for agents: https://www.cliprecipe.com/llms.txt