Ultimate Bolognese Sauce – My Two-Day Meat-Sauce Recipe
Learn how to make a deep, two-day Bolognese sauce — slow-cooked beef, pork & lamb in red wine and homemade stock for an ultra-silky ragù. Starting with a base stock made from oxtail and poussin, combined with the same aromatic vegetables found in the sauce, this foundation enhances the depth of flavours. The sauce features a hearty mix of beef chuck, lamb shoulder, and pork shoulder, simmered with the homemade stock. The slow cooking concludes in the oven, allowing the flavours to meld and intensify, creating a mouth-coating consistency perfect for coating pasta.
0:00 – Why my ragù isn’t “authentic”
0:52 – Day-1 Stock – oxtail & poussin
4:33 – Day-2 kick-off – guanciale soffritto
10:43 – Meat trio prep – pork, lamb & beef
13:24 – Umami bombs – soy, anchovy, tomato
15:14 – Full-bottle red-wine reduction
16:10 – Slow finish – 3 h oven braise
18:05 – Texture test, season & serve
*Ingredients*:
– ~1 kg meat mix (pork shoulder, lamb shoulder, beef chuck)
– ~100 g guanciale
– 2 medium carrots, finely diced
– 2 celery stalks, finely diced
– 2 medium onions, finely diced
– 1 head garlic, minced
– 1 bay leaf (plus more optional)
– 2 tbsp tomato purée
– 2 tbsp anchovy paste (or minced salted anchovies)
– 2 tbsp soy sauce
– 1 tin chopped tomatoes (400 g)
– ~500 ml dry red wine
– Gelatinous stock (see below)
– Parsley (added in stages)
– Salt, black pepper
*Stock Ingredients*:
– ~1 kg oxtail
– 1 poussin (or small chicken)
– Aromatic veg trimmings (celery, carrot, onion)
– 2 bay leaves
– 2 star anise
– 1 tsp black peppercorns
*Day 1 – Make the Stock*:
1. Roast oxtail and aromatic veg (minus garlic) in oven at 200°C until deeply browned (~40 min).
2. Transfer to pressure cooker with poussin, spices, herbs. Cover with water, cook 2 hr (or 6 hr simmer). Strain, chill overnight. Skim fat before using stock.
*Day 2 – Make the Sauce*:
1. Dice guanciale, render slowly in cold pan until fat released.
2. Add diced carrot, celery, onion, sweat slowly. Add parsley stems.
3. When translucent, add garlic. Continue to sweat.
4. Add meat, break apart. Evaporate liquid without browning fully.
5. Add tomato purée, anchovy paste, soy sauce, canned tomatoes. Cook briefly.
6. Add wine, reduce at high heat ~8 min to remove alcohol.
7. Preheat oven to 150°C. Add enough stock to cover meat. Bring to boil, transfer to oven.
8. Cook 3 hr, stirring every 15 min. Add stock as needed.
9. After 3 hr, skim fat, remove bay leaves. Optionally blend small portion and return for creaminess.
*To Finish*:
Taste, adjust seasoning. Serve with pasta, parmesan, and chopped parsley.
*The Story*
When I first thought about starting this channel, I figured Bolognese would be one of my initial videos. 219 videos later, we are finally here.
Along with roasted chicken, Bolognese is one of my two favourite things to cook. The dish is all about refinement. The basic principles and recipes are quite established that the task at hand is not to come up with something extraordinary but to execute each small step as close to perfection as possible, hopefully coming up with ideas to make small improvements to different steps along the way. There are so many small moving parts in what is considered almost a comfort food recipe that if I were to cook it a thousand times, I doubt any two would taste identical.
The first time I cooked this dish seriously was after watching Heston Blumenthal’s In Search For Perfection series. I followed most steps, and the results were decent but nowhere near mind-blowing (the fault was probably mine, not his), but it was good enough that this easy-to-prep-ahead dish became one of my go-tos. Every time, I would do something slightly different and would often actually notice the difference in the end result.
Shortly after that, I discovered Mr. Marco Pierre White. While I’ve heard about and read about him (first in Gordon Ramsay’s Humble Pie – the bike story…), I was too young to have had the chance to dine at Harvey’s. While we can all agree his Bolognese recipe for Knorr did not showcase his skills, his cooking videos changed how I look at cooking, showed me the importance of tasting along the way, and questioning each step along the way. The perpetual refinement was on from that day.
This dish has gone through, and will continue to go through, many iterations. I don’t expect anyone to actually cook my current recipe, but I hope by posting it and explaining, to the best of my abilities, the reasoning behind each step, it could contribute slightly to the refinement of your next meat sauce.
____
*Follow us on Instagram:*
#W2Kitchen #bolognesesauce #meatsauce
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Craving that final pasta toss? 🍝 Jump to 7:00 of this Pasta-in-Sauce video here → https://youtu.be/K8QRMOn1csM?t=420
how much camera cuts?
-yes
Too much talk
This is an interesting interpretation of bolognese sauce. I use milk in mine, (one cup per 500 gramme of meat) but the same patience is brought to bear. Most people want to rush the sauce, and it is one that should be created very slowly.
little tip : remove the breasts of the poultry.
White breast will barely give any taste to the broth nor colagen, but you can use it for another meal.
Boiling breasts is never worth. Even in a chicken soup, you be better cutting them out before, cooking them appart in a pan (or grill/oven you do you), cut them in piece and put them in the soup just before eating. The taste is too delicate to dilute it.
dude is a fraude
dude is so slow
this is his whole day
i am skeptical
This looks great but I've never seen anything more distant than a bolognese sauce. The power of italian cuisine is in its semplicity and the respect for the fewer, but good, ingredients. This is an overcomplicated interpretation that has barely any resemblance of that sauce.
Not a fan of unchunky Bolognese.
Bay leaves aren’t unsung. I’d say they’re oversung
great recepie, but you need to tone it down a bitt on the camera angel changes, getting dissy here
Speaking of Umami bombs – have you tried Sun dried tomatoes?
New drinking game every time he says evaporate take a shot😂 i bet you cant make it till the end
I would recommend adding worcestershire sauce, parmesan cheese and double cream, all when adding to the oven for the final cook. Also when cooking off the meat, add blended chicken livers. After decades of cooking Bolognese, this is my current iteration/standard. But just like you, it probably won't be the same recipe this time next year.
Surely a nice sauce but not Bolognese.
man theres so many camera changes i cant watch this
I subscribed because he has a glass of wine with every video.
The occasional asian/british accent mashup is amazing 😆
"And this is really gonna piss off the remainder of the italian grandmothers still watching this video" has had me laughing for minutes now, haha.
Dude, that looks fantastic. I love the attention to detail and the fact that you are staying true to the original concept, but just elevating what you can in a subtle way.
That's how a sorcerer enjoys the making of magic potions! Congratulations and thanks for sharing! 😊
i promise, try worcestershire sauce instead of soy and use loads
crazy you talk like a pro Chef but you dice the onion like a child 😀 still good video man. I like it 🙂
good bolognese doesn’t require 2 days to make. overdoing.
This is the first time I see your channel, you break rules in cooking to elevate your dish and I love it. You don’t make me feel like youre full of elitism but just having fun with food, making delicious food
I really enjoy how you explain why you do what you do for each step, it is very helpfull, and makes you understand cooking more than just the recipe.
I realize that you do not use very high heat and that you do not use nonstick. If you could include a description of why you use the cooking tools that you use, it would be much appreciated😊
I went to 16 different shops for the ingredients and came back with carrots celery mince and onions. 😂
Mate, dude. I only just looked through your ingredient list and……. no milk. Not going to bother watching the video. Do some homework and try again.
To me, this is what cooking is all about — it’s not about following every recipe to the letter, it’s about experimenting. That’s how you create something truly amazing for yourself. This video has so many great ideas that actually make sense… even if they might give some Italians a heart attack. But who cares — it’s about the joy of cooking!
Two words – ORANGE ZEST
That was BY FAR the easiest and fastest sub in a long time!
Very well versed opinions on cooking processes, bringing in tips to actually save money where it doesn't matter, relaxed but present cooking…
Awsome stuff!
Congrats btw on keeping that shirt cloudy white. 😀
Looks good but its not a Bolognese! There is a clear way to cook an original Bolognese.
Its a meat sauce by your Inspiration!
It sure tastes very good
Most expensive pasta ever, two chickens,ox tail, pork cheek, ground beef…..shiiiit
Even in the kitchen you can over engineer and complicate things. This dish falls under this exact category.
The beauty of a dish and its complexity rarely comes by adding tons of different flavours but the balance of a few extraordinary quality ingredients! That's at least my take.
Still: great effort while wearing a white shirt mate!
Very good. He can communicate.
i don't have the time for these kind of dishes in my life right now, but i do love to watch you make it 🙂 And maybe one day i will have a lovely kitchen and time to spend time like this (heaven)
"Each step only makes the dish marginally better."
The most precious line in the whole video. Which explains the extreme (to a fault) care given to all the steps taken to prepare and cook the food in the video…