Italian Bolognese Sauce With Pancetta and Papperdelle

The pasta dishes in Italy are amazing to me, each one from a particular region that has its own special twist or ingredient. Every dish uses a particular pasta that works with the sauce to give you maximum flavor. The sauces that dress the pasta are what make these dishes so delicious and while there are many to choose from, one of my personal favorites is Bolognese sauce, which is a traditional Italian meat sauce.

Unlike the American version of meat sauce that is tomato-based, an Italian Bolognese sauce is much thicker and creamier (since milk and cream are ingredients) and it has just a little bit of tomato. It’s a dish that comes from the city of Bologna, which is located in the northern region of Italy (north of Florence) and is known for its fine cuisine. You’ll often times hear a Bolognese sauce referred to as a ragù, which is the general term for a meat-based Italian sauce served with pasta. Ragù alla Bolognese is the specific variation of the meat sauce from Bologna that uses white wine rather than red.

This is not a sauce you can rush, but trust me it’s worth the time and effort. Our Italian Bolognese Sauce with Pancetta and Pappardelle combines the traditional ingredients of ground beef, plum tomatoes, white wine and whole milk with a twist of pancetta and a little heavy cream. The end result is a hearty dish that is truly mouth-watering and one you’ll want to share with others.

To start, we used a large can of plum tomatoes that we put into a food processor and pulsed a few times to break them down. You want the tomatoes to be in pieces – not too big or small.

As I mentioned, pancetta is one of my secret ingredients for this sauce. Pancetta is a pork belly salami that is salt cured and is typically added to soups and sauces for additional flavor. You can find pancetta in the deli section but make sure they cut you at least half-inch slices so you can get a good dice. To dice our pancetta, we used the Hardy Slicer, which was perfect to cut through the fat and meat.

You’ll also need to chop up some celery, carrot and onion, which is called a mirepoix (meer-pwah) in some culinary circles. It’s the trifecta of ingredients for stocks, soups, sauces and many other things. We used the 7-5/8" Petite Chef knife to quickly dice these three vegetables, ensuring they were of similar size for even cooking.

Once these ingredients are cut, you start by adding the pancetta to the olive oil and cooking them for a bit before adding the celery, carrot and onion mixture. Once the vegetables are soft, add the beef and allow that to cook before adding the wine.

The next ingredient is whole milk and here is an important tip. Make sure the milk is room temperature. You don’t want to add cold milk to a hot dish as that will make it curdle. That same tip applies for when you add the heavy cream. Now begins the long cooking process and you really do need 2 hours of cooking time over low heat. That is what brings all of the flavors together and thickens the sauce.

Once you’ve added the cream and cooked for some additional time, the next important tip is saucing the pasta. You want to cook your pasta al dente, to where it still is firm when bitten. Once it is cooked, drain it and add it to the sauce while the sauce is on low heat, stirring it with the Basting Spoon to ensure all of the pasta is covered. This is called saucing the pasta and ensures the sauce sticks to your pasta.

For this recipe, we used papperdelle pasta, which is a wide noodle. You could also use tagliatelle but I wouldn’t recommend anything else as you really need a substantial pasta to hold up to this sauce.

For serving, I recommend placing the entire dish on a large platter for presentation purposes or you can dish out individual plates. Just make sure to top it with some freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. I’m not exaggerating when I say this dish is fabulous. The rich meaty sauce with just hints of tomato, rich flavor from the pancetta and the creaminess from the milk and cream are perfection. I highly recommend making this Italian Bolognese Sauce with Pancetta and Pappardelle for a romantic meal or special occasion, but honestly it’s good any time. It’s sure to impress.