Rigatoni with Bolognese-Style Meat Sauce
Serves 3–4 · Prep: 10 minutes · Cook: 45–55 minutes · Total: about 1 hour
This is the pale, brick-colored meat sauce you get at good Italian restaurants, where the beef is broken up so fine it almost disappears and every ridge of the rigatoni holds onto some of it. There’s much less tomato here than you’d think, only a cup of crushed tomatoes and a couple spoonfuls of paste for a whole pot, and that’s what keeps it from becoming spaghetti-night red sauce. Milk goes in with the tomatoes, an old Bolognese habit that softens the acidity and makes the beef taste rounder and gentler. Give it a slow 40-minute simmer, finish it in the pan with a ladle of starchy pasta water, and the sauce turns glossy and clings to the pasta the way it never does when you just spoon it over the top.
Ingredients
Main
- 12 oz rigatoni or mezze rigatoni
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ small yellow onion, finely diced
- ½ lb ground beef
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup crushed tomatoes or passata
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ cup chicken stock, beef stock, or water
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- Black pepper
- ¼ cup finely grated Parmesan or Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
Optional, but good
- 1 small carrot, finely diced
- 1 small celery stalk, finely diced
- ¼ lb ground pork, replacing part of the beef
- 2 oz pancetta, finely chopped
- ¼ cup dry white wine
Instructions
- 1
Heat the oil
Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat.
- 2
Soften the vegetables
Add the onion. If using carrot and celery, add them now too. Cook for 6–8 minutes, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft but not browned.
- 3
Brown the beef
Add the ground beef. Break it up very small with a spoon as it cooks. Cook for 6–8 minutes, until the beef loses its raw color and starts to brown lightly.
- 4
Cook the tomato paste
Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1–2 minutes.
- 5
Add the liquids
Add the crushed tomatoes, milk, stock or water, salt, and black pepper. Stir well.
- 6
Simmer
Lower the heat and simmer gently for 35–45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a splash of water if the sauce gets too thick.
- 7
Cook the pasta
Cook the rigatoni in salted water until 1–2 minutes short of al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before draining.
- 8
Finish in the pan
Add the rigatoni to the sauce with a splash of pasta water. Toss over medium heat until the sauce coats the pasta.
- 9
Add the cheese
Turn off the heat and stir in the grated Parmesan.
- 10
Serve
Serve with more Parmesan on top.
Recipe notes
Cook’s notes
- Spend real effort breaking up the beef, more than feels necessary. Once the sauce is done you shouldn’t be able to pick out individual pieces of meat, just a fine texture running through the whole thing.
- The color tells you if the tomato is right: light orange-red, closer to terracotta than to marinara. A bright red sauce means the tomato took over.
- A sauce that’s too thick during the simmer just needs water. A sauce that looks loose after the pasta goes in usually isn’t a problem, since another minute or two of tossing over medium heat tightens it right up.
- The all-beef version is genuinely good on its own. Pork makes it richer, pancetta gives it that faint cured depth restaurant versions have, and white wine adds a little brightness, so add them when you have them, and skip them when you don’t.
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