This Best Bolognese Sauce recipe is meaty mushroom version of the savory, classic meat-based sauce that originated in Bologna, Italy. Serve it over your favorite pasta for a fabulous Italian dinner! We love Italian food classics at our house! Some of our other favorites are The Best Spaghetti and Meatballs, Classic Lasagna, and Italian Wedding Soup!
You will love this Tagliatelle Bolognese
Traditional bolognese sauce (also known as ragù alla bolognese, or sometimes just ragù) is a slow-cooked labor of love made with a trio of meats (beef, pork, and pancetta), a soffrito (the holy trinity of Italian cooking consisting of finely chopped onions, carrots, and celery), white wine (some people use red although white is traditional in bolognese sauce), milk, and tomatoes. It tastes absolutely amazing and is totally worth the effort to make it from scratch, especially since this recipe makes a huge batch that can be divided and frozen for future use. I have partnered with the Mushroom Council to bring you this recipe. Their Blenditarian Challenge is a great opportunity to stretch your dollar by adding mushrooms to meat to add bulk and volume to everyday dishes, stretching recipes into more servings for less money, while simultaneously adding flavor and health to your meals! Blending finely chopped crimini and porcini mushrooms is my not-so-secret weapon for adding even more delicious flavor and nutrition to this best bolognese sauce recipe!
What is Bolognese Sauce?
Not to be confused with a classic marinara sauce which is a simple, quick-cooking sauce highlighting the bright, acidic flavor of tomatoes, bolognese sauce is a slow-cooked, mouthwateringly savory meat sauce. Yes, there are still tomatoes in bolognese (and my version even uses more tomatoes than other recipes which famously only call for 3 ounces of tomato paste compared to 2 pounds of meat!), but much of the liquid in the sauce also comes from milk and wine (or broth if you don’t cook with wine), with a good amount of vegetables added in as well. Then it gets slowly simmered over a period of 4 hours until a thick, rich sauce is created and your kitchen smells amazing. The list of ingredients might seem long, but traditional bolognese sauce is made with pork, beef, and pancetta, a soffritto made from onions, carrots, and celery, along with wine, milk, tomatoes, and other a few herbs, then simmered slowly. Bolognese sauce gets better the longer it’s cooked, so it’s not something you want to rush. The flavors really develop during the slow simmer at a low temperature, so this once you get all of the veggies softened and the meat and mushrooms browned, you could easily transfer everything to a slow cooker to finish the sauce in there by cooking on low for 4 hours, rather than letting it simmer on the stove. This really is the best bolognese sauce recipe ever, and even though it’s more labor-intensive than some other recipes, what with chopping veggies, browning meat, and a long, slow cooking process, I promise it’s 100% worth the effort.
Traditional Bolognese Sauce ingredients
Olive oil – for cooking vegetables and meat in. Ground Beef – you could use ground turkey but for a traditional bolognese sauce the ground beef adds authentic flavor. Ground Pork Pancetta – often referred to as the Italian bacon is a cut of pork belly that is cured with salt, black pepper, and spices and sometimes rolled into a cylinder. Crimini mushrooms – also known as brown mushrooms. Cremini mushrooms are just a more mature white button mushroom. Dried porcini mushrooms – rehydrated in warm water for 30 minutes, then dried and chopped. These mushrooms are harvested in the wild so they are dried to be sold around the world. Salt Black pepper Yellow onion chopped Whole carrots Celery stalks Garlic cloves White wine 2 Cans of crushed tomatoes Can of tomato puree Milk Bay leaves Fresh thyme Flat leaf Italian parsley Parmesan cheese Fresh tagliatelle pasta (if you can find it)- really use any favorite pasta.
Which Pasta to use for Bolognese
The best pasta for bolognese sauce is tagliatelle, not spaghetti, even though you have probably had spaghetti bolognese before. In Bologna, where bolognese sauce originated, it is customarily served with fresh tagliatelle pasta, which are broad, flat, egg-based noodles shaped like ribbons, similar to fettuccine. Tagliatelle bolognese is one of, if not THE signature dish, of Bologna, in northern Italy, and you would never see bolognese sauce served with spaghetti noodles when traveling there. And for good reason! Using the right type of pasta for the sauce is important because spaghetti’s circular shape doesn’t hold on to the hearty bolognese sauce, which slides right off. A broad, flat noodle is much better suited to this thick, meaty sauce. One of these days I’m going to get a pasta attachment for my KitchenAid and learn how to make fresh pasta, but until then I can usually find it in the refrigerated section at some well-stocked grocery stores or use dried tagliatelle. If you have a hard time finding tagliatelle, good alternatives include other flat pasta shapes like papperdelle or fettucine, or tube shapes like rigatoni and penne that will hold up to the thick, meaty sauce.
How to make the Best Bolognese Sauce
How to serve Tagliatelle Bolognese
This is a pretty hearty sauce served on top of tagliatelle so you wouldn’t need much more to the meal. Some fresh parmesan on top, a light salad, fresh garlic bread, or sauteed broccoli would all be good choices.
How to store this Mushroom Bolognese Recipe
My biggest tip is to not store it with pasta. Store the sauce in a separate container otherwise the pasta can suck up all the moisture from the sauce. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
More Great Italian Recipes You’ll Love
Zuppa Toscana Creamy Roasted Garlic & Mushroom Risotto Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp, Tomatoes and Fresh Basil The Best Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe White Chicken Spinach Lasagna Authentic Italian Pizzelle Recipe Italian Peas Raspberry Peach Italian Cream Sodas
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