Traditionally Bolognese sauce should also be cooked for a long time on low heat. If you have the time to do this, I highly recommend it. The sauce becomes almost creamy with the extra cooking time so it is definitely worth it.

Whenever I have the chance to make the sauce earlier I do, ideally letting it simmer for an hour to an hour and a half. If you choose to simmer for longer, you may need to add more liquid. Just keep an eye on it to make sure it’s not burning. You can use more tomatoes or stock if more liquid is required.  

 

Preparing Bolognese Pasta

If you freeze your ground beef like I do you will have to start a day early. Firstly, make sure you defrost the ground beef in the fridge overnight.

Secondly, heat up a large deep sauté pan on medium-high heat and add the ground beef to the pan once hot. Break up the meat using a spatula and stir occasionally until browned. This should take roughly 5 minutes. It’s okay if all of the ground beef isn’t quite cooked at this point as there will be plenty of time for it to cook fully.

While the meat is cooking, wash the carrots and zucchini and grate on a fine grater. You can use the coarse grater if you prefer. Alternatively, you can finely dice the vegetables if you don’t have a grater handy.

Next, peel and dice the onion, and peel and press the garlic. Then, add the vegetables and garlic to the meat in the large pan and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

At this time, I recommend getting the water boiling for cooking your pasta.  Pour water into a large pot and place on medium-high heat to boil. It always takes a while for the water to boil; cover it with a lid to reduce the boiling time.

Now, we are ready to turn this meat mixture into a sauce. Add Italian seasoning and garlic

powder to the meat and veggies and stir to combine, then add the tomatoes. Stir everything together and cover with a lid. Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. This is where you can let this sauce simmer for as long as an hour if you have the time. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

About halfway through the simmering process, the water in the large pot should be boiling. Add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook per package directions. Stir the noodles a couple of times before the water starts to boil again to prevent the noodles from sticking together.

Once the Bolognese sauce has cooked down, turn off the heat and add ¼ cup of parmesan cheese. Stir until the cheese is fully melted.

Once al dente, strain the spaghetti in a colander and rinse under cold water for 5 seconds to prevent them from sticking.

I like to use tongs to plate the spaghetti. With a little twist of the wrist, you can make a nice neat nest on your plate. This isn’t necessary but a nice touch to keep the plate looking neat. Scoop some pasta sauce over the spaghetti ‘nest’.

Julienne the basil, if you are using it. The easiest way to julienne the basil is by stacking a few leaves, rolling them like a cigar and then thinly slicing all the way across.  Top the spaghetti Bolognese with the remaining parmesan cheese and basil, and serve.

Substitutions

• Veggies: I don’t always use zucchini in this sauce so you can definitely skip it. I also like to also add celery when I have it. It blends right in with the other flavours and adds some extra nutrients. If you’re in a pinch and don’t have any vegetables you can really skip them all, except the onions.
• Meat: Lean ground beef is my favourite choice for Bolognese sauce because it has just the right amount of fat to add richness to the dish but doesn’t taste greasy. I have substituted ground turkey or chicken many times. You can also mix ground beef and ground pork which will give you a wonderful depth of flavours.
• Noodles: as I mentioned above, spaghetti is not the traditional choice of noodles for a Bolognese sauce. One of my go-to’s for this sauce is rigatoni. I just love how the sauce gets inside each noodle. I find it’s easier to eat fewer noodles and more sauce this way too. No spaghetti or rigatoni on hand? Try tagliatelle or fettuccine, even farfalle will be great. Andi if you want to get closer to the original ragú, long egg noodles are the preferred choice.  

Serving Spaghetti Bolognese

I like to serve spaghetti bolognese with a side salad. Either a simple spinach salad or Caesar salad are my favourite pairings. If you feel like you need to add more vegetables to this meal, steamed broccoli or pan-seared asparagus are also great choices for sides.

Like every delicious tomato sauce, this dish also deserves to be accompanied by equally delicious bread. A thinly sliced and buttered, if you prefer also toasted, fresh baguette is the perfect mechanism to sop up all that leftover sauce on your plate. Trust me, you will not regret this extra add-on.