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Pasta Bolognese

Name: Pasta Bolognese
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 110 min
Total time: 130 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 150 g Onion; 100 g Carrot; 80 g Celery stalks; 30 ml Extra-virgin olive oil; 400 g Coarsely minced beef; 200 g Minced pork; 150 ml Dry red wine; 30 g Tomato paste; 500 g Tomato passata; 2 leaves Bay leaves; 8 g Fine sea salt; 3 g Ground black pepper; 100 ml Whole milk; 400 g Spaghetti; 60 g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated

A slow-simmered ragù of beef and pork over a soffritto base, mellowed with milk and built to be cooked far longer than the pasta it's served with.

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 110 min
Difficulty: Easy

About this dish

Real ragù alla bolognese bears only a passing resemblance to the thin, garlicky tomato-and-mince sauce most of the world calls Bolognese — in Bologna it's a thick, meat-forward sauce where tomato is a background note rather than the point, traditionally tossed with flat tagliatelle rather than spaghetti, which barely holds onto a ragù this substantial. The milk stirred in near the end isn't a modern addition or a shortcut; it's there specifically to round off the acidity of the tomato and wine, the same trick that shows up in plenty of long-simmered Italian sauces once you know to look for it.

Not vegetarian because of Coarsely minced beef, Minced pork
Contains gluten because of Spaghetti
Contains dairy because of Whole milk, Parmigiano Reggiano, grated

Ingredients

4servings

150gOnion
100gCarrot
80gCelery stalks
30mlExtra-virgin olive oil
400gCoarsely minced beef
200gMinced pork
150mlDry red wine
30gTomato paste
500gTomato passata
2leavesBay leaves
8gFine sea salt
3gGround black pepper
100mlWhole milk
400gSpaghetti
60gParmigiano Reggiano, grated

Instructions

Finely dice the onion, carrot and celery, and sauté them in the olive oil over low heat until soft.
10 min
Tip: Take this soffritto to genuinely soft and sweet, not just warmed through — it's the flavour base the whole sauce is built on, and rushing it leaves a rawness that two hours of simmering afterward won't fix.
Add the beef and pork mince and cook, breaking it up, until it's no longer pink.
10 min
Tip: Break the meat into small, loose pieces rather than large clumps — a ragù is meant to cling to every strand of pasta, and big chunks of meat just sit on top instead.
Add the red wine and let it mostly evaporate, then stir in the tomato paste, passata, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and simmer very gently, partially covered, for about 75 minutes.
75 min
Tip: Keep the heat low enough that the sauce barely bubbles — a hard simmer for two hours reduces it to something greasy and split rather than the silky, thick sauce a gentle one hour-plus produces.
Stir in the milk and simmer for a further 10 minutes.
10 min
Tip: Adding the milk late, near the end rather than the start, is what lets it round off the sauce's acidity without curdling in a pot that's been simmering for over an hour already.
Cook the spaghetti in salted water, then toss it with the sauce and serve with grated parmesan.
10 min
Tip: Toss the pasta directly in the sauce rather than spooning sauce on top of a plated pile — a minute of tossing together is what actually gets the sauce to cling to the pasta instead of pooling underneath it.