Nigel Slater's Really Good Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What makes spaghetti bolognese taste better? ›

Milk. Adding milk to Bolognese is actually a part of the traditional method. Not only does dairy make sauces silkier and richer, but it also makes the meat more tender. We add milk to our mixture a whole hour after simmering our Bolognese, and then allow it to simmer for a further 45 minutes.

Even though both are considered meat sauces and are thusly chunky, ragù is more like a thick tomato sauce with recognizable bits of ground beef within it. Bolognese, though, is creamier and thicker because it is made with milk. It is not considered to be a tomato sauce.

Spaghetti bolognese, or shortened to "spag bol" in the UK, is a popular pasta dish outside Italy, although not part of Italian cuisine. The dish is generally perceived as inauthentic by Italians.

While some of the ingredients of bolognese are similar to American-style spaghetti meat sauce, authentic bolognese is typically thicker, has milk added (so good), and calls for much less tomato.

The best tip for intensifying the flavour of your sauce is just to cook it slowly on a low heat for a long time. This reduces the sauce and intensifies the flavours – four hours is not uncommon for my bolognese.

Marcella Hazan wrote that any cook can achieve a great ragù by being careful about a few basic points. First, the meat should not be from too lean a cut; the more marbled it is, the richer the ragù it makes. The most desirable cut of beef is the neck portion of the chuck.

The Italians traditionally eat the Bolognese with tagliatelle, a flat strand egg pasta similar to fettuccine. You can use other flat ribbon pasta like papardelle or tripoline. I personally use this sauce with any and all pastas though. And I love mixing it with tube pastas like rigatoni or penne.

Cooking the meat in milk first, before adding the wine and tomatoes tenderizes the texture. Some Ragù Bolognese sauce recipes call for adding the milk at the end of cooking (bit by bit). But I add it earlier on- I like the texture and flavor better this way. Don't brown the meat.

Meatballs are not a sauce, they are balls of meat. A sauce has to be runny, or at least flowing. Done correctly, a bolognese sauce isn't particularly meaty. The meat is meant to be finely ground and incorporated into a standard spaghetti sauce, and the meat so fine it should stick onto the pasta in little specks.

Secret to Best Bolognese Sauce

The base for this sauce is made from a combination of diced onion, carrot and celery cooked in olive oil. Italians call it 'soffritto” and use it as a foundation for many sauces, soups and stews.

What do Italians eat with bolognese? ›

Take bolognese; you might be used to eating it with spaghetti, but no self-respecting Italian would ever serve a meaty ragú like this with such a thin pasta shape. Substantial sauces call for substantial pasta shapes, so a wider, flatter shape like tagliatelle or pappardelle is more appropriate.

American Bolognese: A Fusion of Flavors

Although ground beef is still essential, additional proteins such as ground turkey or sausage are frequently welcomed. As the vegetable medley grows, it gains more texture and flavour with the addition of bell peppers and mushrooms.

In Italy, the sauce is known as Ragù alla Bolognese (or simply “Ragù”), and is one of the many methods in Italy used to prepare meat sauces. Ragù is a general term in Italian, used to refer to any meat sauce simmered or cooked over low heat for many hours.

In 1917, the wonderfully named Julia Lovejoy Cuniberti recommended dressing “macaroni or spaghetti” with the meat sauce in her book Practical Italian Recipes for American Kitchens. And thus “spaghetti bolognese” officially became a thing. The dish's success was meteoric, promptly appearing on menus all over New York.

While Ragu and Bolognese are similar, and in fact, Bolognese is a form of ragu, there are a few key differences worth considering. Ragu sometimes includes vegetable chunks, properly prepared Bolognese does not. Ragu typically uses red wine, while Bolognese calls for white.

Your spaghetti sauce may taste bland due to insufficient seasoning. Try adding more salt, herbs (like basil, oregano, or thyme), and other flavor enhancers like garlic, onion, or red pepper flakes. Also, a dash of sugar can balance flavors and bring out the natural sweetness of tomatoes.

Let the sauce simmer for at least 1 hour, but preferably 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally. This slow cooking process allows the flavors to meld and intensify, transforming the sauce into a luscious masterpiece.