Linguine with Bolognese Sauce is is a rich, slow-simmered Italian meat sauce that’s hearty, savory, and deeply flavorful. Unlike a typical marinara sauce, Bolognese is less about tomatoes and more about the deep, meaty flavor that develops as it slowly cooks — for about an hour. The sauce is thick, velvety, and clings beautifully to every strand of pasta.
What You’ll Love About This Recipe:
- It is classic Italian comfort food made easy.
- It’s kid-friendly, crowd pleasing and cozy.
- With ground beef, pantry staples, and a few easy tricks, you can have a dinner that tastes like you worked on it all day.
Ingredients Needed:
- Olive Oil: I use extra virgin olive oil. Avocado oil may also be used.
- Butter: Use unsalted butter so you can control the amount of salt you want in the sauce.
- Onion: I like to use sweet yellow onion.
- Carrot: Peel it or leave the peel on.
- Celery: You’ll need one large celery stalk. Use the rest to eat with peanut butter!
- Ground Beef: We use all ground beef in this recipe.
- White Wine: It’s traditional to use white wine in bolognese sauce.
- Canned Crushed Tomatoes: I like to look for the San Marzano Tomatoes for the best flavor.
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Bay Leaves: Dried bay leaves are fine.
- Whole Milk: This acts as a tenderizer for the meat.
- Parmesan Cheese: This adds creaminess and body to finish the sauce.
- Fresh Parsley: This is used to garnish individual dishes.
- Pasta: We are using linguine in this recipe.
How to make Linguine with Bolognese Sauce:
The full, printable recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post.
First, you’ll make the bolognese sauce. Cook the finely chopped veggies (carrot, onion and celery) in oil and butter until softened. Add the ground beef and cook until browned. Then add white wine and simmer until evaporated. Add crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn down heat, add whole milk and simmer. Mix in the Parmesan cheese.
Plate individual servings, and add additional Parmesan cheese and a little bit of chopped fresh parsley.
If you like this recipe, you might also like to try our recipes for pasta with garden bolognese sauce (no meat) and paleo spaghetti squash bolognese (spaghetti squash in place of pasta).
Recipe Tips
- In traditional bolognese sauce, a combination of ground beef and ground pork is used. You can try that if you’d like.
- Don’t use red wine. White wine keeps the flavor lighter and cleaner, allowing the subtle sweetness of the carrots, the richness of the meat, and the creaminess from milk to shine. Use a dry white wine such as pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc.
- It’s best to use whole milk. In a pinch, you can use 2%, but it will be less creamy. Heavy cream will make it richer. A plant-based milk could be used but there may be some texture/flavor differences.
- Additional pasta suggestions for serving with bolognese sauce: tagliatelle, pappardelle, fettuccine, rigatoni or penne.
- If you want to try a lighter version of this recipe, check out our recipe for Weight Watchers Spaghetti Bolognese.
Freezing Tips:
Pasta with bolognese is a freezer friendly meal!
- You can make the bolognese sauce ahead of time and freeze it. Let the sauce cool completely. Portion it into airtight containers or freezer bags. Label with the date. Freeze for up to 3 months.
- To freeze the fully assembled pasta and sauce, cook pasta to al dente. Toss the pasta with the Bolognese sauce (enough to coat well). Let it cool completely. Portion into freezer-safe containers. Label and freeze for up to 2 to 3 months.
Fun Facts About Linguine:
- September 25th is National Linguine Day.
- Linguine is usually made of just 2 ingredients: durum wheat semolina and water.
- Most pasta is served with tomato-based sauces, but linguine is usually served with pesto or seafood and lighter sauces. We defied tradition and served linguine with bolognese sauce!
- Linguine can be made from both wheat and white flour. Wheat flour is the most common way it’s made in Italy.
- Linguine is also known as bavette or trenette pasta.
- The most common way to make linguine nowadays is to make linguine alle vongole (linguine with clams).
Linguine with Bolognese Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 medium onion, chopped finely
- 1 medium carrot, chopped finely
- 1 large celery stalk, chopped finely
- 1½ pounds lean ground beef
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 28 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
- 1¼ teaspoons kosher or sea salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 whole bay leaves
- 1 cup whole milk
- ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
- 16 ounces linguine pasta, cooked to al dente (then drained)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley, for serving
Instructions
- Add the oil and butter to a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Once melted, add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the beef, turn the heat up to medium-high, and cook until browned- about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon to break up the meat.
- Add the wine and cook until it’s mostly evaporated off, about 5 minutes- stirring occasionally.
- Stir in the crushed tomatoes, salt, black pepper, and bay leaves. Cook on low (uncovered) until thickened- about 30 minutes- stirring frequently.
- Stir in the milk. Cook (uncovered) until the sauce is quite thick- about 15 more minutes, stirring constantly.
- Stir in the shredded Parmesan. Stir in the cooked pasta, or add pasta to serving bowls with sauce spooned on top.
- Sprinkle the parsley on top and serve along with more Parmesan to sprinkle on top.
Notes
- If you serve this as 6 servings, they will not be large servings. Serve a small amount of pasta and a scoop of the bolognese sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
