Fettuccine Bolognese
Fettuccine Bolognese is like a hug in a bowl. Rich, meaty homemade sauce is tossed with pasta that you can twirl around your fork.
Fettuccine Alla Bolognese is the Coziest Sunday Dinner
Weeknight dinners are about efficiency, but Sundays are for the love of cooking. If I don’t have anything else going on, Sunday afternoon is when you’ll find me cooking something that takes a bit longer but is always worth the effort. One of my favorite Sunday recipes is fettuccine bolognese.
And that’s not to say that this recipe is hard. It’s not. It’s easy enough for a novice cook to make. It IS a little time consuming, there’s no way around that. There’s some time spent up front getting a good brown on the beef, then the vegetables, then breaking up the meat into little bits.
But then, you get to the most important (and hands off) part of this fettuccine alla bolognese – the two hour SIMMER. This is where you can snuggle into the couch with a book, because you only need to stir every half hour or so.
After the simmer, you’ll just need to cook some pasta and then stir it together with the meat sauce, and dinner is served.
Why You’ll Love Fettuccine with Bolognese Sauce
- You can enjoy an authentic Italian-style meal without needing to book a plane ticket to Bologna.
- Despite it’s deep, rich flavor, bolognese is surprisingly simple to make (lots of the cook time is completely hands off).
- Super freezer-friendly, so you can make a double batch and freeze for the future.
What is Fettuccine Bolognese?
Bolognese is a meat-based Italian pasta sauce, named for the city of Bologna. It is also known as ragu alla bolognese or simply ragu.
It can be used to prepare lasagna, or just stirred together with cooked pasta like fettuccine (or other options, discussed below).
What is The Difference Between Bolognese Sauce and Spaghetti Sauce?
In the United States, “spaghetti sauce” is typically very tomato-heavy. It may sometimes have ground meat like beef or sausage in it. And it’s always served with, of course, spaghetti!
Bolognese sauce is meat-forward. It may or may not have some type of tomato product in it (in my pasta bolognese recipe, there’s just a smidge of tomato paste). It’s thicker and richer than spaghetti sauce.
Bolognese also typically includes milk, which tenderizes the meat.
Fettuccine Bolognese Ingredients:
- celery – adds an earthy flavor to the base of the sauce.
- carrots – add a natural sweetness to the sauce.
- onion – brings a savory flavor.
- olive oil – for sauteeing the aromatic veggies.
- ground beef – the hearty protein base of the sauce.
- kosher salt – for seasoning the sauce and the pasta cooking water.
- red wine – deglazes the pot and adds acidity to balance the richness of the meat. If you don’t want to use wine, beef broth will work.
- tomato paste – concentrated tomato flavor that thickens and adds tang to the sauce.
- bay leaf – deepens the sauce’s complexity.
- thyme – adds aromatic flavor and earthiness to the bolognese fettuccine.
- milk – helps tenderize and break down the meat.
- pasta -for serving the sauce! More on this below.
- Parmesan cheese – for serving.
- chopped fresh parsley – for serving.
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What Is The Best Pasta for Bolognese Sauce?
While in Italy, it is traditional to serve bolognese with freshly made tagliatelle, that’s not something that I can typically get my hands on.
Making fresh homemade pasta is not my favorite thing to do, and I don’t always have access to freshly made pasta to buy.
So, as evidenced by the name of this recipe, I love fettuccine! It’s probably the closest alternative to a fresh long pasta like tagliatelle while also still being widely available.
Rigatoni is also great because both the tube shape of the noodle, and the ridges on the outside, make it an ideal type of pasta for the meaty sauce to cling to (in fact, I have a separate post dedicated to rigatoni bolognese).
Penne is another great tube shaped pasta with ridges that works well with this sauce. Bolognese is also just peachy keen with regular old spaghetti noodles!
What Type of Red Wine Should I Use For The Best Fettuccine Bolognese Recipe?
I typically use cabernet sauvignon in this bolognese recipe, but pinot noir would also be great in this pasta bolognese.
As long as it’s not too sweet, just about any red wine will be just fine for fettuccine alla bolognese.
Or, if you have white wine left over from something else, that works in a pinch for this fettuccine bolognese recipe, too. But red wine is always my first choice for this recipe, if possible.
Home Chef Tips For Bolognese Fettuccine
- Don’t want to open a bottle of wine to make one batch of fettuccine alla bolognese? Neither do I. I like to keep mini bottles (187 mL) of both red and white wine on hand, just for cooking.
- Each bottle equals just a smidge over 3/4 cup. Since you need 3/4 cup of wine for this fettuccine bolognese recipe, you can either take a few sips first, or just round up on the wine a little bit and use the entire bottle.
Variations on Fettuccine alla Bolognese
- Fettuccine Bolognese with Sausage – replace half or all of the ground beef in this recipe with ground Italian pork sausage (either mild or spicy).
- Fettuccine Bolognese with Ricotta – dollop a spoonful of ricotta cheese on top of each bowl when you serve!
- Fettuccine Bolognese with Peas – stir thawed frozen peas in at Step 8 in the recipe below to add an extra serving of vegetables to this dish.
- Fettuccine Bolognese with Cream – to make a creamy fettuccine bolognese, stir in 1/2 cup heavy cream at Step 8.
- Lamb Bolognese – swap out the beef for lamb using my lamb bolognese recipe!
Can You Freeze This Fettuccine Bolognese Recipe?
Yes! Bolognese sauce itself freezes great!
I recommend that you make and freeze the sauce on its own (make the recipe through step 6, then freeze).
Then, when you’re ready to eat it, simply thaw and warm the sauce, and cook the pasta at that point. Then, stir it all together and eat (steps 7 through 9).
What to Serve with Fettuccine Bolognese
There’s hidden veggies built right into this pasta bolognese, but if you’d like even more, I’d suggest a simple green salad with citrus salad dressing.
Serve this fettuccine with bolognese sauce with our homemade garlic bread recipe or easy yeast rolls for mopping up any extra sauce.
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Fettuccine Bolognese
Ingredients
- 2 celery stalks roughly chopped
- 2 small carrots peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 medium onion roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- Kosher salt
- ¾ cup red wine
- ⅓ cup tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 large sprig thyme
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup whole milk
- 12 ounces dry fettuccine
- Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley for serving
Instructions
- In bowl of food processor fitted with knife blade attachment, pulse celery, carrots and onion until very finely chopped.
- Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Break ground beef into about 8 chunks and add to pot. Season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally but not breaking up meat, 6 to 8 minutes or until outside of beef chunks are browned. Using slotted spoon, transfer beef to medium bowl.
- Add celery mixture to pot and cook 10 to 15 minutes or until all moisture has evaporated and vegetables begin to lightly stick to bottom of pot, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in wine and reserved beef. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook 8 to 10 minutes or until wine is evaporated, using spoon to break beef into small bits as it cooks.
- Add tomato paste, bay leaf and thyme and cook 5 minutes or until tomato paste is slightly browned, continuing to break beef up as it cooks.
- Stir in water, milk, and a pinch of salt. Reduce heat to low and cook, uncovered, 2 hours or until mixture has reduced to a sauce consistency and meat is very tender, stirring about every 30 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaf and thyme sprig. Taste sauce and season with additional salt if necessary.
- Heat large pot of salted water to boiling over high heat. Add fettuccine and cook for 2 minutes less than package directions for al dente.
- Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water. Drain pasta and transfer to pot with bolognese. Add 1/2 cup reserved pasta cooking water. Increase heat to medium, and cook, while stirring pasta and sauce together, 2 minutes or until pasta is al dente and everything is combined. Add additional pasta water if necessary, to keep things saucy!
- Serve topped with Parmesan cheese and parsley.
Notes
- Adapted from Bon Appetit.
