Instant Pot Bolognese Sauce

Bolognese sauce can be sublime. Real Bolognese sauce is creamy from the addition of milk and has depth from wine. Originally, I made the Marcella Hazan recipe as my go to. But, her recipe takes about 4 hours. I don’t have the ability to keep checking on the amount of liquid left in the pot anymore. After I pondered this for a bit, I knew I had to turn to my Instant Pot. I came up with an Instant Pot Bolognese sauce that is similar to my old recipe and only takes about an eighth of the time

A New Plan

I used to make a Bolognese sauce that was cooked very slowly while uncovered. Now, because of the cover and so little evaporation in the Instant Pot, I don’t worry about it drying out and burning. I can taste a slight difference of intensity in the flavor in the Instant Pot version. However, it is barely noticeable. For me, it is worth every minute of the three hours of cooking time that the IP cuts out. I love not having to add the ½ cup of water every time that the sauce dries out. I can wander off, or make a salad to serve with this Instant Pot Bolognese sauce.

One thing I have noticed, is that when I use wine in the Instant Pot, it can have a strong acidic taste. I now always allow some of the alcohol to cook off before the lid is put on and the pressure cooking begins. My new recipe compensates by adding about a 5 minute simmer before the 35 minute pressure cook. I’ve allowed enough time for the alcohol taste of the wine to evaporate. Traditionally, Bolognese is served on tagliatelle. I can’t always get tagliatelle so I use fettucini, which is similar pasta. Whichever pasta I use, Instant Pot Bolognese sauce is a revelation.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Instant Pot Bolognese Sauce

A rich,tradtional ragù (meat sauce) from the Italian city of Bologna..

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

CoolDown (Natural Release)5 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: Bolognese, Italian, meat sauce, ragù

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 large Onion finely chopped
• 3 cloves Garlic minced (or pressed)
• 3 stalks Celery finely chopped
• 2 Carrots finely chopped
• 1 6 oz can Tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 3-4 grinds Black Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme Leaves (not ground)
• 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 2 lbs Ground Beef (I like 85% for this)
• 1 28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• 1 cup Dry White or Red Wine

Instructions

• Turn the Instant Pot to saute. Add the olive oil and butter to the Instant Pot. When melted and hot, add onions, garlic, celery, and carrots.. Saute, stirring often for 5-10 minutes (make sure not to brown them).
  
• Add the tomato paste, salt, pepper. thyme, oregano and nutmeg. Saute for a minute or two, stirring until everything is incorporated.
  
• Add ground beef, crushed tomatoes, milk and wine.Mix everything really well, making sure to completely break up the ground beef. Let simmer for about 7 minutes.
  
• Close the lid. Set to Manual pressure setting for 35 minutes.
• When finished, let the sauce natural release for about 5 minutes.
• Remove the lid and stir well.
  

To Serve:

• Serve over tagliatelle or fettuccine.

Modifications

This is another one of the recipes I have streamlined, and changed the tools used, to make it as simple as possible for me.

The most difficult part for me is chopping the vegetables finely. In the past, I cut the celery and carrots into need uniform little tiny pieces by hand. I decided to let this go and use the food processor to finely chop both. You know what? It didn’t make even the tiniest bit of difference in Bolognese sauce, Just be careful not to puree the vegetables They should still be in pieces.

I chopped the celery and carrots the day before and put them in zip lock baggies.

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