Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce for pasta originating from Bologna, Italy. It includes meat, vegetables, tomato paste, and wine. Variations outside of Italy often have more tomato and vegetables. It is best served with thick pasta and a deep red wine.
Bolognese sauce is an Italian meat-based sauce for pasta that originated in Bologna, a city in northern Italy. A true Bolognese includes a small amount of tomatoes or tomato paste in a rich sauce with meat and other ingredients. It tends to be served on thick pasta, as larger pasta shapes hold the meat much better than finer pastas like capellini. Variations on the sauce outside of Italy often include much more tomato and vegetable ingredients, which greatly change the flavor profile.
In Italian, ragù alla bolognese is called ragù alla bolognese, which essentially translates to “meat sauce as it is made in Bologna”. Ragu is an Italian word for any meat-based sauce, derived from the French ragù, “to revive the taste”. Another famous Italian ragu comes from Naples in southern Italy. Bolognese cuisine includes many other famous foods, including a popular meat product, mortadella, sometimes known outside of Italy as “Bologna.”
The base of this sauce is a sauté, an assortment of aromatic and savory vegetables such as celery, onions and carrots fried in olive oil and butter. Next, chunks of meat such as beef and bacon are added to the sauté to brown. A little milk or cream is added and stirred briefly before the white wine is poured in and the sauce is allowed to reduce, concentrating the flavor and creating a rich broth. Next, tomato paste and stock are added, along with a pinch of butter and salt. The sauce is stirred and then simmered gently until the meat breaks down.
Bolognese can be topped with pasta or topped with on top. Some cooks dress it up with freshly grated Parmesan, while others prefer to let the sauce’s natural flavor through. Fresh salt and pepper can also be used in small amounts, to enhance the flavors of the bolognese sauce. Typically, pasta bolognese sauce is served with a wine of your choice, such as a deep red.
Outside of Italy, bolognese sauce may look more like tomato sauce than ragu. A tomatoier version of Bolognese sauce is particularly popular in Great Britain and Northern Europe, as well as the United States. Since the chunks of meat in the sauce still make it rich and heavy, it should ideally be served with large pasta shapes such as linguine, tagliatelle and fettuccine. Some people also use it as a spaghetti sauce, although the pasta may not hold up well under the thick sauce.
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