This Bolognese Sauce combines ground beef and pork for a hearty sauce that’s perfect on a cold winter day!
I really do love a good pasta dish; especially one with a nice warm, rich sauce. This one definitely fits the bill and is super yummy!! It’s the first in a series of my favorite pasta dishes I’m going to be sharing this fall and winter. I know, I know, lots of carbs in pasta, but before you stop reading, like a lot of people I also try to cut down on (not cut out) carbs, so I typically use whole wheat or high fiber pasta when making pasta dishes.
For me, pasta is great comfort food; on a cool fall night or cold winter day, there is nothing like a bowl of pasta with a lovely warm sauce and a nice glass of wine!!
How to make bolognese sauce
During colder months, I often spend Saturday or Sunday afternoon making a sauce, and maybe a soup or chili too. Prepping ahead of time gives you options for quick lunches and dinners during the week. Pasta sauce generally keeps pretty well, though I do recommend keeping the sauce separate from the pasta until you’re ready to eat.
This recipe makes about 6 servings, depending on who’s eating and how hungry they are, and it freezes really well. So if you are just feeding two people you can split the leftover sauce into two containers, freeze one and save the other for meals later in the week!
Cook the pancetta: The fat from the pancetta gives adds flavor to the sauce and gives you a base for cooking the rest of the veggies, so you want to start with this step.
Add the veggies: Once you’ve cooked the pancetta you’ll add the rest of the veggies to your dutch oven and sauté them.
Brown the meat: Then the ground pork and ground beef get added to the mix. Once they are cooked you’ll add additional seasonings.
Simmer the sauce: Next comes the wine, broth and remaining ingredients. This sauce needs to simmer for at least an hour before it’s ready to serve.
Serve: I prefer to heat individual servings of pasta and sauce, which is how you’ll see it done in restaurants. It helps to get the pasta coated with sauce and ensures everything is nice and warm when you serve it. You can skip this step and just add the sauce to the warm pasta, however, once you try it I think you’ll agree it’s worth the few extra minutes before serving. It’s also a good trick if you are using a sauce that was previously made.
I like to serve this with either the Chardonnay from the sauce or if you prefer red wine, a nice light Pinot Noir. Enjoy!!
My Favorite Bolognese Sauce
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 75 minutes
- Total Time: 95 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
This Bolognese Sauce combines ground beef and pork for a hearty sauce that’s perfect on a cold winter day!
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 oz thinly sliced pancetta, chopped
- ½ cup finely diced carrot, about 1 large carrot
- ½ cup finely diced celery
- 1 cup finely diced yellow onion
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 pound ground sirloin
- ½ pound ground pork
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup Chardonnay
- ½ cup chicken broth
- 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
For serving: – all measurements in this section are per the number of people you are serving
- ½ cup Barilla Protein Plus Penne
- 1 tablespoon Italian Parsley leaves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon grated parmesan or other hard cheese
Instructions
For the sauce:
- Heat oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add pancetta and cook for 4 minutes.
- Add carrots and celery; cook for one minute.
- Add onion and sauté for an additional minute. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute more.
- Add pork and ground beef, cook until crumbly. Add spices; cook 1 minute until fragrant.
- Add Worcestershire, wine, chicken broth and stir. Add tomatoes and stir until all ingredients are mixed.
- Bring sauce to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour.
- Remove the bay leaf from the sauce.
To serve
- While the sauce is cooking, prepare the penne according to the package directions. When you drain the pasta, reserve about ½ cup of the pasta water.
- When you are ready to serve, heat a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add ½ cup of sauce, about ¾ cup of pasta and 2 tbsp of pasta water. Let heat for a few minutes, mixing occasionally.
- Transfer to a warm bowl or plate; top with cheese and Italian parsley and serve immediately.
- Repeat process for each person being served.
Notes
If you want to make the sauce ahead of time, stop after the sauce portion and store sauce. When ready to serve, heat the amount of sauce you need in a sauce pan (or the microwave) until warm, and the proceed with making the pasta and serving.
Updated. Originally published October 2015.
This looks really delicious! I love to make bolognese and I’ll have to give your version a try! 🙂 I love to make a big batch and then freeze it for easy dinners later.
★★★★★
Thanks Lexi!
I love pasta! This may be genetic because I’m Italian. This actually looks like something I could make!
Bolognese is a staple over here. Will definitely try your version!
This sounds amazing! Definitely putting it on the menu for next weekend!
It’s freezing in Minnesota right now and this looks so perfect for a cold winter night!
I don’t eat a lot of pasta, but I am ready to grab that spoon and dig on in! I love a good bolognese sauce and the addition of pancetta sounds amazing!
Thanks Julie! I love adding pancetta to different recipes.
Pancetta and pork are a great add to a Bolognese, but I also noted that you also have cut your carrots and celery in big chunks. I do the same, I love the taste of the vegetables bites in between.
★★★★★
Well done! This sauce looks amazing!
★★★★★
Thanks Marlee!
This looks absolutely PERFECT! Yum!