This bolognese is an OG Rockin Meals recipe in every sense of the word. It was one of the very first recipes I ever shared on the blog, and honestly, one of the recipes that helped lead me to create Rockin Meals in the first place. It was one of those recipes where I’d constantly get a text from a friend saying, “Hey, can you send me your bolognese recipe?” and I’d copy and paste it straight from the chicken scratch I had saved in my Notes app and send it over.
It’s one of those recipes I make multiple times a year, because it’s true comfort food for me. It’s everything I want in a bolognese: hearty, meaty, tomato-y, and packed with flavor, with ground beef AND Italian sausage, red wine, plenty of aromatics, and a Parmesan rind thrown in for good measure. Then you let the whole thing simmer away until all of those flavors come together into one ridiculously good sauce.
It’s one of my favorite recipes for a cozy Sunday dinner, but it’s equally perfect for hosting because it makes a BOATLOAD. Put a big pot of pasta in the middle of the table, open a bottle of red wine, add some bread and a salad, and you have one of my favorite kinds of lowkey dinners.
And if you’re not feeding a crowd, even better. Make the full batch anyway, eat half now, and freeze the rest. Few things feel better than remembering you have homemade bolognese sitting in your freezer on a night when you absolutely do not feel like cooking.
Basically, once you realize how easy it is to make a big pot of really good bolognese, ground beef + a jar of marinara just isn’t going to hit the same. You’ve been warned.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s an OG Rockin Meals favorite. This was one of the first recipes I ever posted to Rockin Meals, and I’ve personally made it more times than I could possibly count.
- Beef + Italian sausage. Using both gives the sauce SO much more flavor than ground beef alone. You get the richness of the beef plus all those delicious seasonings from the Italian sausage.
- Perfect for hosting. This recipe makes a ton of sauce and actually benefits from hanging out on the stove, which means you’re not frantically cooking pasta sauce when your friends arrive.
- A meal-prep dream. Make a full batch, and you’ve got multiple meals ready to go.
- Freezer-friendly. This is one of those recipes where making extra feels like doing a favor for your future self. It’s also a great one to drop off at people’s houses if they’re expecting, recently moved, or could just use a lil extra help with meal planning.
- It gets better the longer it cooks. You can absolutely have a delicious sauce after about 45 minutes of simmering, but if you have 1–2 hours to let it hang out? Even better.
Ingredients
- Ground beef: Gives the bolognese its hearty, rich base. I prefer a ground beef with enough fat to give the sauce plenty of flavor rather than something ultra lean.
- Italian sausage: My not-so-secret ingredient! Using a combination of Italian sausage and ground beef gives the sauce so much more flavor. Sweet or hot Italian sausage both work depending on your preference.
- Mirepoix: The classic combination of onion, carrot, and celery. I will happily buy a pre-chopped container when I want to save time, but you can obviously chop your own, or do it quickly with a food processor.
- Garlic: Because obviously.
- Tomato paste: This gets cooked directly in the pot until it darkens, which helps concentrate the tomato flavor before we add the rest of our ingredients.
- Dry red wine: Adds acidity, richness, and depth to the sauce. Use something dry that you’d actually be happy to drink with dinner, since we’re not using the whole bottle (for the sauce at least 😉 .
- San Marzano tomatoes: If you can find them, San Marzano tomatoes are my favorite here. I like buying them whole and breaking them up so I can control the level of texture, but you can also use pureed tomatoes if you prefer.
- Dried oregano, parsley + basil: Simple Italian herbs that add another layer of flavor as the sauce simmers. Feel free to use fresh or dried.
- Parmesan rind: Optional, but HIGHLY recommended. Tossing a leftover Parmesan rind into the pot while the sauce simmers adds an incredible savory, salty richness.
- Pasta: Use your favorite! I especially love a pasta shape that can stand up to such a hearty sauce, so I usually go tagliatelle, bucatini, pappardelle, rigatoni, or even shells.
Tips & Tricks
The key with a good bolognese is time. Time for each component to properly caramelize before adding the next. For example:
- Let the meat actually brown. Don’t just steam your ground beef and sausage until they’re gray and immediately move on. Give them some time against the hot pot to develop those golden-brown bits. That’s where we’re starting to build flavor. Don’t overcrowd the meat. If your pot isn’t large enough to comfortably brown 2 pounds of meat, work in batches. Too much meat crowded into a small pot will steam rather than brown.
- Let the mirepoix soften and caramelize before adding the rest of the ingredients.
- Cook the tomato paste for 4-6 minutes until you see the color turn into a deeper red.
- Let the wine reduce. Don’t immediately dump your tomatoes in after the wine. Give it a few minutes to cook down and reduce first to cook out the alcohol and concentrate the flavor.
- Low and slow is your friend. Once everything is in the pot, bring it to a gentle bubble and then reduce the heat. You want a slow simmer, not an aggressive boil.
- Give it at least 45 minutes. That’s the minimum I’d recommend for letting all those flavors come together. If you can give it 1–2 hours, do it. This is one of those recipes that rewards patience.
Scrape up those browned bits with your wine. When you pour in the red wine, use your wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot. All those little browned bits from the meat are FLAVOR, and we want them in our sauce.
Use a wine you’d actually drink. You don’t need to open a $50 bottle of wine for your pasta sauce, but don’t use something you think tastes terrible either. A dry red like Chianti, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Merlot works well.
Save your Parmesan rinds! When you finish a wedge of Parmesan, throw the rind into a bag in your freezer instead of tossing it. Then you’ll always have one ready for soups and sauces like this.
Keep an eye on it during a longer simmer. Give the sauce a stir every so often so nothing sticks to the bottom. If it starts getting thicker than you’d like, add a splash of water.
Make it ahead for hosting. Bolognese is honestly an ideal dinner-party meal because you can make the entire sauce earlier in the day, or even the day before, and gently reheat it when you’re ready to eat. All you have to do when your guests arrive is cook the pasta.
Serving Suggestions
Obviously, PASTA. I love this with a hearty pasta shape that can really hold onto the sauce. Rigatoni, pappardelle, tagliatelle, or another wider noodle would all be delicious. Whatever pasta you choose, toss it in a pot with a few ladles of the bolognese and some pasta water to get the pasta and the sauce to stick to each other.
I’ve also served this over spaghetti squash, and use it as the base for my lasagna.
For a full meal, add a simple green salad or Caesar salad and some crusty bread or garlic bread.
More Comfort Food Recipes
If you’re looking for more cozy Rockin Meals dinners, try:
- Rotisserie Chicken Pot Pie
- Tomato Soup with Everything but the Bagel Grilled Cheese
- Spicy Rigatoni Alla Vodka
- Classic Pot Roast
Favorite Bolognese Sauce
- Total Time: 75
- Yield: 6-8
Description
This hearty homemade bolognese sauce is comfort food at its finest, perfect for Sunday dinner, hosting, meal prep, or freezing for later.
Ingredients
For the Bolognese Sauce:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed if needed
- 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
- 2 celery stalks, finely diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 Parmesan rind, optional but highly recommended
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- Pasta of choice, for serving
- Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
Instructions
For the Bolognese Sauce:
- Heat a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the olive oil, ground beef, and Italian sausage. Give the meat a good sear on one side, about 4-5 minutes, before flipping.
- Cook until browned, breaking the meat into crumbles with a wooden spoon. If there is a large amount of excess grease, carefully drain some off, leaving a tbsp or 2 behind for flavor.
- Add the onion, carrot, and celery and season with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Cook for 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften.
- Add the garlic and tomato paste. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the tomato paste darkens to a deeper brick-red color.
- Pour in the red wine and use your wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Let the wine simmer for 4–5 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by at least half.
- Meanwhile, break up the whole tomatoes using your hands, kitchen shears, or the back of a spoon. You want them broken down but still with a little texture.
- Add the tomatoes and their juices to the pot along with the bay leaves, oregano, parsley, basil, and Parmesan rind, if using. Stir everything together.
- Bring the sauce to a gentle bubble, then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. For even deeper flavor, let the sauce simmer for 1–2 hours.
- If the sauce becomes thicker than you’d like during a longer simmer, add a splash of water or broth as needed. Taste and season with additional salt and black pepper.
- Remove the bay leaves and Parmesan rind before serving.
- When ready to serve, to a pot, add drained cooked pasta, a few ladles of bolognese, and some pasta water and toss until well coated.
- Finish with freshly grated Parmesan and enjoy!
Notes
For the best flavor, let the sauce simmer for 1–2 hours if you have the time. The longer simmer allows the sauce to reduce and all of the flavors to come together.
This recipe makes a large batch and freezes beautifully. Let leftover sauce cool completely, portion into freezer-safe containers, and freeze without the pasta for an easy future meal.
Sweet or hot Italian sausage both work in this recipe. Use whichever you prefer depending on your desired spice level.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 60
- Category: Dinner
- Method: One Pot
- Cuisine: Italian
Storage
Let leftover bolognese cool, then transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3–4 days. This sauce reheats beautifully on the stovetop over medium-low heat. If it has thickened in the refrigerator, add a splash of water or broth as it reheats until it reaches your desired consistency.
Bolognese is also one of my FAVORITE freezer meals. Let the sauce cool completely, portion it into freezer-safe containers, and freeze. I recommend freezing the sauce separately rather than freezing it already mixed with pasta. When you’re ready to eat, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator or gently reheat from frozen on the stovetop, then boil a fresh batch of pasta.
FAQs
Can I make bolognese ahead of time?
Absolutely, and it’s actually one of my favorite recipes to make ahead. Make the sauce a day before you plan to serve it, refrigerate it, then gently reheat it on the stovetop. The extra time gives all those flavors even more time to hang out together.
How long should I simmer bolognese?
Give it at least 45 minutes, but I prefer 1–2 hours when I have the time. Keep the heat low and stir occasionally. The longer simmer allows the sauce to reduce and the flavors to deepen.
Can I freeze bolognese sauce?
YES. This is one of the reasons I love making such a large batch. Cool the sauce completely, portion it into freezer-safe containers, and freeze it without the pasta. Cook fresh pasta when you’re ready to serve.
Should I use sweet or hot Italian sausage?
Either works! Sweet Italian sausage keeps things classic and mild, while hot Italian sausage adds a little kick. Choose based on your spice preference.
What red wine is best for bolognese?
Use a dry red wine that you’d also be happy to drink. Chianti, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Merlot are all good options. Avoid anything overly sweet.
Can I make bolognese without wine?
Yes. You can substitute beef broth or chicken broth. The flavor won’t be exactly the same, but you’ll still have a delicious sauce.
What does a Parmesan rind do in bolognese?
As the sauce simmers, the Parmesan rind adds savory, salty, umami-rich flavor. It won’t melt into the sauce, so remove whatever remains of the rind before serving.
