Dinner Pasta and Noodle Dishes Pasta Pasta Bolognese Bolognese Meat Sauce 4.3 (31) 28 Reviews Marcella Hazan’s classic ragù recipe is pure, long-simmered joy in a pot. By Marcella Hazan Marcella Hazan Marcella Hazan was a hugely influential Italian cooking teacher and award-winning author whose writings and collections of recipes helped define traditional Italian cooking in the U.S. in the 20th century. Her seminal works include The Classic Italian Cookbook, More Classic Italian Cooking, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and Marcella Cucina. She died in September 2013. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on August 23, 2026 Save Rate PRINT Share Active Time: 30 mins Total Time: 3 hrs 30 mins Servings: 6 Jump to recipe A base of sautéed onion, carrot, and celery with ground beef builds deep savory flavor before any tomatoes are added.The addition of milk early in cooking softens acidity and lends the sauce a creamy, rounded texture that balances the tomato and meat.Long, gentle simmering — with occasional additions of water as needed — melds the meat, vegetables, wine, milk, and tomatoes into a rich, classically Italian ragù that clings beautifully to pasta. Ragù, as the Bolognese call their celebrated meat sauce, is characterized by mellow, gentle, cozy flavors. Marcella Hazan wrote that any cook can achieve a great ragù by being careful about a few basic points. Tips for making a great ragù First, the meat should not be from too lean a cut; the more marbled it is, the richer the ragù it makes. The most desirable cut of beef is the neck portion of the chuck. Next, salt the meat immediately when sautéing it to extract its juices for the benefit of the sauce. Cook the meat in milk to protect it from the acidic bite of the wine and tomatoes you’ll add to the pot. Do not use a demi-glace or other stock concentrates that tip the balance of flavors toward harshness. Finally, be sure to use a pot that retains heat. Earthenware is preferred in Bologna and by most cooks in Emilia-Romagna, but an enameled cast-iron pan or a pot with a heavy bottom that’s composed of layers of steel alloys is also satisfactory. Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen Recommended pasta: The marriage of Bolognese ragù with homemade Bolognese tagliatelle is a perfect union. Ragù is also delicious with tortellini, and irreproachable with such boxed, dried pasta as fettuccine, rigatoni, conchiglie, or fusilli. Curiously, meat sauce in Bologna is never served over spaghetti, despite the popularity of the dish in the United Kingdom and countries of the Commonwealth. Keep Screen Awake Ingredients 1/2x 1x 2x Oops! Something went wrong. Our team is working on it. This recipe was developed at its original yield. Ingredient amounts are automatically adjusted, but cooking times and steps remain unchanged. Note that not all recipes scale perfectly. Original recipe (1X) yields 6 servings 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 3 tablespoons butter, plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta 1/2 cup onion, chopped 1/2 cup celery, chopped 1/2 cup carrot, chopped 3/4 pound ground beef chuck (see prefatory note) Kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper 1 cup whole milk Whole nutmeg 1 cup dry white wine 1 1/2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juices 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds pasta Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, for serving Directions Diana Chistruga Gather the ingredients. Diana Chistruga Put the oil, 3 tablespoons butter, and chopped onion in the pot; turn the heat on to medium. Diana Chistruga Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring the vegetables to coat them well. Diana Chistruga Add the ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well, and cook until the beef has lost its raw, red color. Diana Chistruga Add the milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating — about 1/8 teaspoon — of nutmeg and stir. Diana Chistruga Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes; stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. Diana Chistruga When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface. Diana Chistruga Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, continue the cooking, adding 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt. Diana Chistruga Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter. Diana Chistruga Serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side. Make ahead If you cannot watch the sauce for a three- to four-hour stretch, you can turn off the heat whenever you need to leave, and resume cooking later on, as long as you complete the sauce within the same day. Once done, you can refrigerate the sauce in a tightly sealed container for three days, or you can freeze it. Before tossing with pasta, reheat it, letting it simmer for 15 minutes and stirring it once or twice. Reprinted with permission from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. Copyright 1992 by Marcella Hazan. Published by Knopf. Cook this recipe and more in the MyRecipes app. Get the App Save Rate Print Loading shell for RecipesUgcThreaded1 Vue component in Globe.