Pasta
Spaghetti Bolognese
A rich, slow-cooked bolognese that takes the best of the Italian ragù and the British family favourite: a soft soffritto, well-browned beef and pork, milk and wine, then a long gentle simmer until the sauce is thick, glossy and deeply savoury.
- Serves 6
- Simmers 2–3 hours
- Freezes well
- Italian / British
Method
Heat the olive oil (1 tbsp) and butter (25 g) in a large, heavy casserole over a medium heat. Add the pancetta or bacon (100 g) and cook for 5 minutes until the fat runs and it starts to colour.
Add the onion (1 onion), carrot (1 carrot), celery and star anise, if using. Turn the heat down and cook gently, stirring often, for 12–15 minutes until soft and sweet but not browned. Add the garlic (2 cloves) for the last 2 minutes. Lift out the star anise.
Push the vegetables to the side, turn the heat up and add the beef (500 g) and pork (250 g) in two batches. Leave each batch alone for a couple of minutes so it browns, then break it up and fry until there is no pink and some crusty brown bits are forming.
Stir in the tomato purée (2 tbsp) and cook for 2 minutes until it darkens to a brick red.
Pour in the milk (200 ml), add the nutmeg and simmer, stirring, until the milk has almost disappeared, about 8–10 minutes. This makes the meat noticeably more tender.
Add the wine (200 ml) and let it bubble until reduced by about half. Add the tomatoes (800 g), crushing them with the spoon, then the stock (250 ml), bay leaves (2 bay leaves) and Worcestershire sauce (2 tsp).
Bring to a simmer, then turn the heat as low as it will go. Cook with the lid half on for 2–3 hours, stirring every 20 minutes or so and adding a splash of water if it starts to catch. Or cook it covered in the oven at 150°C (130°C fan) for the same time. It is ready when it is thick and glossy and a little fat shimmers on the surface. Remove the bay leaves and season with salt and pepper.
Cook the spaghetti (500 g) in plenty of salted water until al dente. Keep a cup of the cooking water, then drain.
Return the spaghetti to the pan with the butter (15 g) and about a third of the sauce and toss over a low heat for a minute, loosening with a little pasta water so it clings. Serve with the rest of the sauce spooned on top and the Parmesan (60 g).
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Chef’s notes
- Do not rush the simmer. Two hours is the minimum; three is better, and the sauce is even better the next day.
- Brown the meat properly in batches. If the pan is crowded it steams and turns grey instead of developing flavour.
- Red wine gives the familiar British taste; dry white wine, as in Bologna, gives a lighter and more delicate sauce.
- Makes enough for 6. Cool quickly, then chill for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- In Bologna the ragù is served with fresh tagliatelle rather than spaghetti. Spaghetti bolognese is the version the rest of the world fell for.
From Bologna to Britain
Ragù alla bolognese is the slow-cooked meat sauce of Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna. Pellegrino Artusi included a Bolognese-style meat sauce in his 1891 cookbook, and in 1982 the Bologna delegation of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina registered a reference recipe: beef, pancetta, soffritto, a little tomato, wine and milk, simmered for a long time.
In Bologna it is eaten with fresh egg tagliatelle or in lasagne, never with spaghetti. Spaghetti bolognese grew up abroad, spread by Italian emigrants and post-war restaurants, and by the 1970s it had become one of Britain’s favourite family meals, usually with more tomato and often red wine.
Our version keeps the Italian method (soffritto, milk, a long gentle simmer) and serves it the way most British households expect.
How this recipe was developed
We compared versions by Marcella Hazan, Heston Blumenthal, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Christopher Kimball (Milk Street and Cook’s Illustrated) with the top-rated BBC Good Food bolognese and Marcella Hazan’s recipe on NYT Cooking, its most-rated version.
- Milk before the wine, a pinch of nutmeg, and butter to finish. Marcella Hazan simmers the meat in milk before adding wine and tomatoes, seasons with nutmeg and tosses the pasta with butter. Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay also add milk.
- A long, low simmer (2–3 hours). Hazan cooks for at least 3 hours, Milk Street 2–3 hours and Heston much longer. BBC Good Food’s 1 hour 15 minutes was the shortest, and the longer cook won.
- Beef and pork with pancetta or bacon. Kimball’s Milk Street and Cook’s Illustrated versions use mixed meats with pancetta. Heston uses pork. Jamie Oliver and BBC Good Food start with smoked streaky bacon.
- Brown the meat well and fry the tomato purée. Heston, Milk Street and BBC Good Food brown the meat for flavour; Milk Street cooks the tomato paste until it darkens.
- Optional star anise and a little Worcestershire sauce. Heston fries star anise with the onions and adds savoury sauces for depth; Gordon Ramsay uses Worcestershire sauce.
- Oven option. Jamie Oliver finishes his bolognese covered in the oven, which avoids catching on the hob.
- Red wine by default. BBC Good Food, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay use red wine, the British norm; Hazan’s white wine is given as the alternative.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Marcella Hazan: Bolognese Sauce (on NYT Cooking) (5/5, 31485 ratings)
- Heston Blumenthal: Perfect Spaghetti Bolognese (In Search of Perfection), reproduced by NPR
- Jamie Oliver: Spaghetti Bolognese
- Gordon Ramsay: Spaghetti Bolognese (Ramsay style), blog reproduction
- Christopher Kimball (Milk Street): Ragù Bolognese
- Christopher Kimball (America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated): Ragu alla Bolognese
- BBC Good Food (Andrew Balmer): The best spaghetti bolognese recipe (4.8/5, 1226 ratings)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.