Bolognese. MAN. I LOVE Bolognese sauce.
I love that it’s basically just a more adult version of spaghetti with meat sauce and has so many added veggies to get you feeling good about yourself!
Bolognese is so rich, meaty, and decadent. Put it over your favorite pasta and you have the best kind of comfort food!
Of course you can also put it over zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash if you’re feeling healthy, but that’s up to you! I won’t judge if you want to splurge with ALL the carbs.
I personally love this Bolognese over fettuccini noodles with a liberal sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan. MY GOSH. My mouth is watering just typing this!
I also choose to use ground turkey in this recipe because that’s the meat that I generally prefer in any ground meat recipe. If you want to go rogue with ground beef, ground pork, or Italian sausage, I wouldn’t blame you at all! Make it your own!
Isn’t that what cooking is all about anyway?
In case you were wondering, this recipe has been toddler approved! My daughter absolutely loved it! Scarfed it down! Even my 8-month old son enjoyed his own heaping portion.
That was made possible because of how small the vegetables were cut up thanks to my handy dandy food processor! My toddler couldn’t tell they were in there and my baby boy had no trouble gumming it. Win-Win!
This is the food processor I use. Definitely a better deal than other food processors and does a fantastic job!
Now don’t be fooled into thinking this recipe is quick like most of my others. Bolognese takes a little extra time, but it is SO worth it! Trust me.
Now I’ll stop blabbering so you can get cooking!
How To Make Bolognese:
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Roughly chop onion, celery, and carrots.
3. Put onions, celery, and carrots in the food processor and process for about 10 seconds. You don’t want it to be paste, but you want the vegetables to be small.
4. Cut up the roma and cherry tomatoes and place in a baking dish with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and parsley. Roast for 20 minutes.
5. Put processed vegetables, bacon grease, and ground turkey in a skillet and cook on medium-high until meat is browned and vegetables are soft. You can use reserved bacon grease (which I highly recommend keeping on hand!) or you can cook two pieces of bacon and use the grease in this recipe.
Also, side note: This meat chopper is AMAZING. If you don’t already have this kitchen tool, do yourself a favor and get one! It’s a game changer. You can find the one I use here!
6. Once tomatoes are done roasting, transfer to a bowl and use immersion blender to blend. You can also use a full sized blender if you do not have an immersion blender.
7. Add blended tomatoes, can of tomato sauce, and butter to meat. Stir and simmer on medium for 15-20 minutes.
8. Add heavy cream, torn spinach, and Parmesan cheese. Stir and cook on low for another 5-10 minutes.
9. Serve over your choice of pasta or zucchini noodles garnished with fresh grated Parmesan and dig in!
Side Note: If you’re looking for something a little bit faster and easier, try this one! https://laurasscratchkitchen.com/lasagna/
And if you’re looking for a great side dish, try this Crispy Roasted Broccoli! https://laurasscratchkitchen.com/roasted-broccoli/
The Best Bolognese
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Blender or Immersion Blender
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 ½ cups carrots
- 1 pound ground turkey (Ground beef or Italian sausage would also work well)
- 3 tbsp bacon fat
- 5 roma tomatoes
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp parsley
- 8 oz can of tomato sauce
- 2 tbsp salted butter
- 1-2 handfuls spinach, torn
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- More Parmesan to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Roughly chop onion, celery, and carrots.
- Put onions, celery, and carrots in the food processor and process for about 10 seconds. You don't want it to be paste, but you want the vegetables to be small.
- Cut up the roma and cherry tomatoes and place in a baking dish with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and parsley. Roast for 20 minutes.
- Put processed vegetables and ground turkey in a skillet and cook on medium-high until meat is browned and vegetables are soft. You can use reserved bacon grease (which I highly recommend keeping on hand!) or you can cook two pieces of bacon and use the grease in this recipe.
- Once tomatoes are done roasting, transfer to a bowl and use immersion blender to blend. You can also use a full sized blender if you do not have an immersion blender.
- Add blended tomatoes, can of tomato sauce, and butter to meat. Stir and simmer on medium for 15-20 minutes.
- Add heavy cream, torn spinach, and parmesan cheese. Stir and cook on low for another 5 minutes.
- Serve over your choice of pasta or zucchini noodles garnished with fresh grated parmesan and dig in!
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This is like meat sauce on steroids! Gosh it was so good!
This bolognese is so hearty! I was happy to see my little ones eat it up happily since there are so many veggies packed in there
I have to admit-I didn’t even know what bolognese was. And now I feel
Like a professional chef!! I made this with spaghetti squash and it was the best!! Thanks for making cooking so simple!
Let me just say, my husband is OBSESSED with this recipe! (Even better than HIS moms) & our kids love it, especially the getting messy part!!! So good!!!!
This is also perfect with angel hair pasta!!! Love this recipe!!! Thank you Laura!
Better than my Nonna’s! And that’s really saying something…