Pasta Bolognese

Pasta Bolognese is a classic Italian dish where al dente pasta meets a hearty ground beef sauce slow-cooked with onions, garlic, and tomatoes. The addition of milk helps tenderize the beef and also adds a note of richness to the flavorful bolognese sauce. It’s a family-friendly dinner everyone will love!

Ingredients

• Olive Oil: You have to use olive oil when making Italian food! Any other oil just won’t cut it.
• Onion, celery, and carrots: These ingredients form the base of flavor for a lot of your favorite soup recipes, and they do the same in Bolognese sauce.
• Garlic: You can add more if you’d like, but never add less!
• Lean ground beef: Because I don’t drain off the grease in this recipe, I recommend a lean ground beef to keep the sauce from being too greasy.
• Whole milk: I recommend sticking with whole milk, rather than swapping in a lighter version. It adds a lot of richness to the sauce.
• Crushed tomatoes: Crushed tomatoes give us more texture than canned tomato sauce, but they’re more broken down than diced tomatoes. This makes them perfect for pasta sauce.
• Tomato paste: Tomato paste isn’t just to intensify the tomato flavor; it also adds umami.
• Seasonings: You’ll need the standard salt and pepper, along with a bay leaf, oregano, and nutmeg.
• Tagliatelle pasta: Or your pasta of choice.
• Chopped parsley: For garnish.

Directions

1. Sweat the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic in a large pot on the stovetop.
2. Add the ground beef and season with salt and pepper.
3. Break up the beef and cook until it’s browned, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir in the milk and simmer until it mostly evaporates.
5. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and remaining seasonings.
6. Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer on low, uncovered, until the sauce is thick and flavorful.