Recipe from Marcella Hazan
Adapted by The New York Times
- Total Time
- At least 4 hours
- Rating
- 5(22,770)
- Notes
- Read community notes
After the death in 2013 of Marcella Hazan, the cookbook author who changed the way Americans cook Italian food, The Times asked readers which of her recipes had become staples in their kitchens. Many people answered with one word: “Bolognese.” Ms. Hazan had a few recipes for the classic sauce, and they are all outstanding. This one appeared in her book “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking,” and one reader called it “the gold standard.” Try it and see for yourself. —The New York Times
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Ingredients
Yield:2 heaping cups, for about 6 servings and 1½ pounds pasta
- 1tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta
- ½cup chopped onion
- ⅔cup chopped celery
- ⅔cup chopped carrot
- ¾pound ground beef chuck (or you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts beef)
- Salt
- Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
- 1cup whole milk
- Whole nutmeg
- 1cup dry white wine
- 1½cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
- 1¼ to 1½pounds pasta
- Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese at the table
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Put the oil, butter and chopped onion in the pot and turn the heat on to medium. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat them well.
Step
2
Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well and cook until the beef has lost its raw, red color.
Step
3
Add milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating -- about ⅛ teaspoon -- of nutmeg, and stir.
Step
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Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. 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. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add ½ cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Stir to mix the fat into the sauce, taste and correct for salt.
Step
5
Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter, and serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side.
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5
out of 5
22,770
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Cooking Notes
Kim
I cannot comment of the taste of the sauce. It was cooling and I ran a short errand. In the meantime, my 8 year old Labrador Retriever, Jake, (who had never, ever bothered anything in the kitchen) somehow got the pot off of the cooktop and ate all of the sauce. The worst part was that I had tripled the recipe, so Jake ate 3 pounds of Bolognese sauce! I am certain he would rate the sauce a 5. We had to go out for dinner, but I will make the recipe again and post relevant feedback!PS Jake is fine.
Rob Ron
At the end of the cooking process am I to remove the separated fat. I'm new to this.
Andrew from New York
This was a great and helpful guide. Added a few bits more here, reduced a few things there and ended up with a great bolognese.
I have to laugh at the people who are complaining about it not being good. You're saying that you had something on your stove top for 3 hours and not once did you taste it? This is cooking not baking. You taste everything at every step along the way and make adjustments. It is the lazy cook that blames the recipe
Mark
I've been making this sauce for 25 years. It comes out great every time. I can say that it works with ground beef or a mixture of beef, pork and/or veal. I can also say that this sauce is 97.32% as good after 1 hour as it is after 3 hours, so if you're impatient. Noting that it takes about 1 hour to get to step 4, so if you started cooking a bit late, when you get to step 4, you can eat it with minimal reduction in quality after one hour of cooking.
Maria
I have the 1979 version of the book. The proportions of ingredients in my cookbook are very different.
For 3/4 lb of beef, go with:
3 tbs each - olive oil and butter
2 tbs each chopped onion, celery and carrot
1/2 c milk
2 c canned Italian tomatoes, roughly chopped.
My recipe calls for adding the wine and cooking off, before adding the milk.
I always make a triple or quadruple recipe. I cut down on the amount of butter/oil I use - never more than 4-6 tbs of each. It freezes well.
Creggio
Marcella has never never let me down. No exception here. If you have had less than a satisfactory result, less thaN a religious experience, try this:1.Do what she says—EXACTLY.2.Tell Alexa to play Puccini or Verdi3.Use the heavy bottom pot.4.Do NOTHING to make any step happen more quickly.7.Don’t deviate from her instructions.You will have a different result. Tanti saluti.
Brian T Hunt
Authentic. Using a broad, flat noodle such as parpadelle is essential. Chop the vegetables pretty fine- they seem to disappear, but are actually part of the chunks in the ragu. The tip about using a little butter and a little starchy pasta water to toss the sauce with the pasta is also important. And spring for the real Parmesan-Reggiano- desecrating a five-hour ragu with stuff from the green can would not only be disastrously counter-productive and sad, but borderline immoral. :)
Linda
This the the best Bolognese recipe there is in my opinion. Btw... Ground chuck is 80/20 ground beef. That is also known as 80%. Any leaner beef and the sauce would not be correct. We do not find it too fatty in the least. You need the butter and whole milk for this sauce to be the way it is supposed to be. Using turkey and skim milk might give you a tasty end result, but it is not Marcella's sauce. As far as I am concerned this recipe is perfect as written . No changes necessary.
Lorraine
I am making this right now and it is going great. I really just wanted to say that I love the expression, "laziest of simmers".
Patricia Garcia
Marcella hailed from the Northern Adriatic coast, where seafood was the most commonly available. She only learned to cook after she was married, trying to please Victor, who was and is an oenophile. She was a gifted cook. I wonder how many of the complainers bothered with the nutmeg...it is the most defining flavor in a true Bolognese sauce, which this most definitely is
Charlie
I've been making this for over 30 years. I cook it exactly for 5 hours. The difference in the taste when you cook it for 3 hours (more bland) and 5 hours is incredible and well worth the time. It ends up being a thick, concentrated sauce that you don't pour on top of the pasta but that you toss into the pasta.
Max
Holy goodness. I'm amazed at the number of people who are absolutely sure that the version of Bolognese that they prefer is the one, true, authentic version. I imagine there are as many variations as there are kitchens in Bologna, folks.
If I could add anything to the conversation, it would be to throw a little starchy pasta water in with the sauce and pasta as they are being tossed together, and really bring it all together.
Amanda
No; it's just a signal that it's finished cooking ("ready to eat"). When sauce cooks long enough that the fat separates it 1) improves the taste of the ingredients, and 2) improves the appearance of the dish. Separated fat looks and tastes beautiful in a dish--it often takes on the deepest colors and flavors in the pot, and is one measure that separates an amateur's dish from a professional's. So, yes! The fat is meant to stay in the pot!
marcolius
I've made this sauce many times, and I like it for what it is. I love to doctor things, too, but sometimes a classic is a classic. That being said, I would add two observations:
-Fresh, blanched, peeled, and chopped tomatoes work well, too. Lean toward longer cooking time. Haven't needed to add water when using fresh.
-I finely mince the vegetables, particularly the carrot and celery. Otherwise, it has a "beef stew" appearance that my family finds less appealing.
m
Oh goodness no! Fear not the fat! Fear the pasta more.
Tom Civiletti
Vegetable oil? Milk? White wine? Oye!
TBChiefs
Made as written except wine before milk and add the rind of the parmigiano reggiano during the lazy summer simmer!
Mitzi Johnson
Any sub for the wine? I have an alcohol-free home.
Figaro
6 years ago1979 version of book, proportions of ingredients are different.For 3/4 lb of 'meat', go with:3 TB each - olive oil and butter2 TB each chopped onion, celery and carrot1/2 c milk2 c canned San Marzano tomatoes, roughly chopped.Add wine and cook off, before adding milk. To make a triple or quadruple recipe, cut down amount of butter/oil used - never more than 4-6 TB each; freezes well.So I saw the article in today's Times. I'm defrosting a container of above for tonight.
Roberto
This is pretty much the way my family in Bologna makes ragu. But there are many variations.
Barry Magid
I agree with those who say it will be just as good (or near enough for us mortals) after an hour....
Ann
Has anyone tried using an Instant Pot or slow cooker?
bb nyc
This is a great recipe. Someone said to be sure to use a bigger pot if you double or increase the recipe. That is so true. Otherwise it will take forever to cook off the milk and the wine. I doubled the recipe. It took about 45 for the milk to be gone and another 45 for the wine. And now I’m waiting for the finish but it will definitely take about 4-5 hours. I have tasted it as the time passes and the sauce keeps getting richer and more intense.
Charlie A.
I’m at the grocery store grabbing the ingredients to make this for I can’t even remember how many times when people come over. Thank you, thank you thank you Marcella!
agata
Notoriously tweaking recipes as a trained cook yet this time: full restrain apart from x2 nutmeg. Holly grail! And I mean it. Genius.
cindy
Double recipe
pinkie
Blitzed some shiitakes and portobellos in the food processor and added them after the milk step. Tripled the carrots and celery. Skipped the wine. After making this recipe many times, my husband and I agreed that these changes yielded the best result to date.
geetha
I made this as written with one exception, after half an hour simmering on stovetop, I moved this to my oven and allowed it to bake at low (275-300 degrees) the rest of the time. I continued the occasional stirring etc as written. It came out beautifully. No additional water was needed at any point.
Mary
5 stars - nothing more to say!
MR
Could I use lamb to make this? Has anyone tried it?
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