Skip to main content

Beef Bolognese

I ran track in high school, and one day my coach told me to eat more pasta to increase my energy. So I went straight home and told my mom that I needed her to pick up a bunch of spaghetti sauce at the store. My mother pointed out that the jars were too expensive—about $2 a jar back then, generally a lot more nowadays—for the amount I was likely to eat (I could eat pasta morning, noon, and night). She wisely suggested I pick up a case of tomato sauce (6 cans for $1!) and get to work. Believe me, a lot of trial and error happened between my first pot and the recipe you see here. It took years to get the right mix of spices. But to this day, I would always rather start a pot with a can of tomato sauce than open any jar of store-bought spaghetti sauce. This bolognese stores beautifully for several months in the freezer, so sometimes I just mix up a batch to store and pull out in a pinch!

Read More
This classic 15-minute sauce is your secret weapon for homemade mac and cheese, chowder, lasagna, and more.
Turn humble onions into this thrifty yet luxe pasta dinner.
Round out these autumn greens with tart pomegranate seeds, crunchy pepitas, and a shower of Parmesan.
The silky French vanilla sauce that goes with everything.
Caramelized onions, melty Gruyère, and a deeply savory broth deliver the kind of comfort that doesn’t need improving.
An extra-silky filling (no water bath needed!) and a smooth sour cream topping make this the ultimate cheesecake.
This pasta has some really big energy about it. It’s so extra, it’s the type of thing you should be eating in your bikini while drinking a magnum of rosé, not in Hebden Bridge (or wherever you live), but on a beach on Mykonos.
Crispy tots topped with savory-sweet sauce, mayonnaise, furikake, scallion, and katsuobushi.