Italian food is comfort food, and this Creamy Bolognese is flavorful, creamy, and simply delicious!

This is a picture of a pan of bolognese pasta with basil on top.

Served with extra parmesan cheese and fresh basil on top, make a note to make this recipe on a night when you’re craving comfort food! This is a short-form cook take on the classic bolognese. Traditional bolognese takes a lot longer with more cooking techniques. Nonetheless…it’s YUMO!

Table of Contents

What You’ll Need

Butter
Yellow Onion
Carrots
Italian Sausage
Ground Beef
Garlic
San Marzano Tomatoes
Heavy Cream
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Parmesan Cheese
Spaghetti
Fresh Basil

Tools You’ll Need

How to Make This Recipe

Prepare the veggies before you start cooking. This meal will be done in less than 30 minutes if you’re organized with your ingredients first.
Go ahead turn on a pot of salted water on high so that it’s ready to cook the spaghetti when you’re ready.
Heat butter in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add the diced carrots and onion, and sauté until they’re slightly tender and the onion is translucent. This should take about 3 minutes.
Once the veggies are complete, add the beef and sausage to the pan. You’ll want to chop the meat into smaller pieces with a meat chopper to have the optimal meat texture in the sauce. Allow the meat to cook with the veggies about 5 minutes.

Add the minced garlic and sauté another minute. Make sure you stir periodically so that the garlic doesn’t burn.
Pour the tomatoes and cream into the skillet. Crush the tomatoes into smaller pieces with a spatula or the cleaned meat chopper, then stir and bring the sauce to a simmer. Season with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes. Simmer 10 minutes for the flavors to merry.

While the sauce simmers, go ahead and get your spaghetti cooking. After about 7-8 minutes, the spaghetti should be nearly al dente. Using tongs, transfer the pasta directly from the pasta water to the sauce and add parmesan cheese. Toss and fold until coated well.

Serve and garnish with fresh basil and additional parmesan cheese.

Tips and Substitutions

Traditional bolognese is simmered for a couple hours or longer. If you want the flavors to bloom a little more, you can simmer it longer or you can make the sauce and refrigerate overnight. The next day, reheat the sauce, make the spaghetti, then fold the 2 together.
You can use any pasta you prefer. Fettuccini, linguini, thin spaghetti and angel hair all work great as well!
If you like ground beef more than Italian sausage or vice versa, you can substitute them for whichever you like best. Sometimes I only use ground beef or only use Italian sausage.
If you’re a fan of baked spaghetti, this pasta is excellent reheated in a baking dish with Italian cheeses on top. I usually sprinkle on a shredded Italian cheese blend and bake at 350°F 30-40 minutes or until the cheese is browning and bubbling at the edges.

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4.87 from 15 votes

Creamy Bolognese

Italian food is comfort food, and this pasta is flavorful, creamy, and simply delicious!

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Total Time30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American, Italian

Keyword: pasta

Servings: Servings

Ingredients

¼ cup butter
1 small yellow onion diced
½ cup diced carrots
1 lb Italian sausage
1 lb ground beef
4 garlic cloves minced
28 oz San Marzano peeled tomatoes
¾ cup heavy cream
Salt/Black Pepper to taste
½-1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes optional
½ cup grated parmesan cheese more for garnish
12 oz spaghetti
Fresh Basil for garnish

Instructions

In a large skillet, melt butter and sauté onion and carrots for 3 minutes on medium-high heat.
Add beef and sausage to the pan. Crumble and cook 5 minutes.
Add garlic and sauté another minute.
Pour tomatoes and cream into the skillet. Crush the tomatoes into smaller pieces, stir and bring the sauce to a simmer. Season with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes. Simmer 10 minutes
Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling salted water. Once al dente, transfer the pasta directly from the pasta water to the sauce and add parmesan cheese. Toss and fold until coated well.
Serve and garnish with fresh basil and additional parmesan cheese.

Video

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