Homemade Tagliatelle Alla Bolognese, Step by Step

Tagliatelle Alla Bolognese, a popular Italian staple that features a delicious tomato sauce cooked low and slow with ground beef, pancetta, and soffritto before being combined with tagliatelle noodles. A hearty dish to prepare for your next gathering or for Sunday dinner!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 3

Servings people

Calories 1264kcal

Author Pina Bresciani

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
2 carrots peeled
2 celery stalks
1 white or yellow onion
1.5 cups pancetta diced
4.5 cups regular ground beef
⅔ cup white wine dry
2 jars (680mL each) crushed strained tomatoes (passata) unsalted
500 grams tagliatelle egg noodles or similar

Instructions

Cut the carrots, celery and onion into medium-sized pieces (no need to be precise- they will go into the food processor)
Place the carrots, celery and onion in a large food processor. If they don't all fit, you may need to work in batches.
Pulse in the food processor until finely chopped.
To a large heavy bottom pot, over medium heat, add the olive oil. Once warm, add the pancetta.
Let the pancetta cook until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the minced celery, carrot and onion.
Let them cook until tender, about 5-10 minutes.
Add the ground beef. Let it cook until browned. This can take awhile - about 10-20 minutes. Ensure to let it brown, as this is where a lot of the flavor will come from.
Add the white wine and scrape the bottom of the pot to lift off any brown bits - this will help build flavor.
Add the jars of crushed strained tomatoes. Give everything a big stir. Let the sauce come to a boil. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting.
Partially cover the pot with a lid and let the sauce cook down - for about 3 hours. Add salt if necessary. But the pancetta is already very salty so you may not need to add any salt.
If sauce dries up too much while it's cooking, add a few ladles of unsalted vegetable broth.
Cook the tagliatelle and add them to sauce. Mix the tagliatelle with the sauce with tongs.
Plate and top with parmigiano reggiano.

Video

Notes

Ensure that the ground beef gets nice and browned before adding the wine - almost caramelized. This caramelization is what will give the sauce a deep, rich flavor
If the sauce starts to dry out before done cooking, add unsalted vegetable broth
You will have to add very little salt (if any) to the sauce. The pancetta is already very salty and provides almost enough salt to the dish.
Try to use an unsalted passata. If you use a passata with salt in it, you will run the risk of the of the sauce being too salty (the pancetta is already very salty)

Nutrition