Slow Cooker Beef Bolognese Sauce

Bolognese sauce is a whole-hearted Italian pasta-sauce in which ground beef or pork or any mix of minced meat are cooked for hours in milk, wine, tomatoes, and vegetables. Mostly people get confused it with ragù; better known as ragù alla bolognese. Genuine ragù alla bolognese is a complex sauce which involves slow cooking of minced meat and tomato sauce with different herbs and veggies. This sauce was served with pasta and it came from late 18^th century Imola, near Bologna. That’s where the name Bolognese came from.  

This sauce is ideal for spaghetti and angle hair, but it can be used with any kind of pasta you have at home, like it goes well with Lasagna too. This recipe is rich in flavors and taste really earthy and amazing when served warm over the cooked spaghetti. Ideally this recipe requires slow cooking techniques so that flavors infuses completely into the dish. You can use slow cooker techniques for this recipe. This is one of the simplest and yummiest ground beef recipe that you can make in a slow cooker. This dish has become very popular in France, Libya, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway, especially among children’s. Children love this recipe and the best thing is that you can add as many veggies you want to make it healthy for kids.  

We are making this recipe in a slow cooker, and therefore adding less of milk than usual as it may curdle in a slow cooker. And moreover you can also refrigerate this sauce for further use. Just thaw it and serve it with any pasta recipe of your choice. 

So let’s cooking one of my favorite ground beef recipes – 

This recipe can serve up to 4 servings

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 8 hours

Total: 8 hours 30 minutes 

Ingredients –

• 1 lb. lean ground beef or combination of beef and pork, minced
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced 
•  2 squeezes Worcester sauce 
•  ½ tsp. dried basil 
•  ½ tsp. dried oregano leaves
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg 
•  1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes 
•  1 tub Knorr Stock - Beef 
•  ¼ cup milk 
•  ¼ cup heavy cream 
•  ¾ tsp. hot chili paste 
•  ¾ tsp. paprika 
•  3 Tbsp. unsalted butter 
•  2 ½ tsp. honey

Method –

1. In a large skillet pan, mix the onion, garlic celery, carrot, and butter and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until tender, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the meat and cook, stirring frequently, until it loses its pink color. Add the milk and heavy cream. Increase heat to high and cook until the milk has evaporated. Transfer the mixture to a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker.
3. Return the skillet to the heat and add the tomato paste; cook over low heat to reduce its bitterness, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste to the cooker, along with the tomatoes, salt, paprika and nutmeg.
4. Now add all the other ingredients and Cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4 hours.
5. Serve it over cooked mezzi elicoidali or any pasta of your choice.

I hope you all have enjoyed this simple recipe. This recipe can be made on any chaotic or hectic day of a week; just put the ingredients on low settings and when you will back from work, yummy dinner would be waiting for you. Enjoy! Happy Slow Cooking.