Rigatoni With White Bolognese Recipe (2024)

This is one of the most amazingly delicious recipes. We didn't use any cream at all...swapped in a pound of sliced mushrooms for the ground beef and used spicy rather than sweet sausage. To further lighten the dish up we served it over roasted cauliflower (roasted at 400, tossed lightly in olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt in a cast iron skillet) rather than pasta. Words cannot express how much my family loves this dish.

just a tip: use the widest-bottomed pot you have, to greatly reduce the time it takes to reduce all the liquids, ie: wine, beef broth, mushroom liquids; as in the recipe.

It is not a true Bolognese without a bit of nutmeg...it is heavenly!

Given that onion, carrot and celery take different times to soften, first add the onion, wait a bit, then the carrot,wait a bit and finally the celery.

Why, oh why do professional chefs and food authors insist on using extra virgin olive oil for cooking? It is much too heavy and viscous and has a low smoking point. It also loses its lovely fragrance and flavor in the heat. Take a sniff before and after you heat it and see.
It's meant for salad and finishing. Save your money and use a good quality all-purpose olive oil for cooking.
Otherwise, this recipe is lovely.

I made a double batch, and because of pan space I put the vegetables in a dish after cooking them while everyting else cooked. I was glad I did; it takes a long time to reduce the liquids and the vegetables would have been too mushy had they remained in with everything else while cooking the sauce.

We've been cooking this for years -- from a magazine article by Amanda Hesser titled "Local Hero" under Food Diary 2.17.02. It was adapted from Heidi da Empoli. We double or even triple up on the veggies, do not add the porcini mushrooms until step 3 (as instructed) and relish the smells that waft through the kitchen. It takes a while to reduce each time, but it's worth the effort. It freezes well for those nights you don't have the energy to cook.

Trader Joe's uncooked Italian chicken sausage...
excellent flavor.

I made this last night and I used a huge skillet (12") and it was more than roomy enough for the ingredients and made reducing the liquid much faster. I would say it took no more than 40 mins. Not labor intensive as one only needs to chop 3 veg. Loved it, and loved how the pasta held the sauce. Proportion of protein to pasta was perfect , too. I will play with the flavors next time. I did add a bit of nutmeg to the meat as it was sauteeing and an avalanche of fresh parsley at the end.

I added the mushrooms before adding the mushroom liquid to allow them to cook a bit first. Key is browning of the meat and being sure the liquids are each absorbed before moving on with the recipe. We enjoyed it very much and found it to be quite flavorful. Will definitely be made again.

This was delicious. Added two cloves of garlic minced like someone suggested. Used whole milk instead of cream. This looked just like the photo. Will make again. My husband is Sicilian, and he really enjoyed this meal. Served with crusty bread and red wine.

Anne, they are taking inspiration from the dish. Cooking should be fun and not so rigid.

For those of us who get heartburn from tomato-based sauces, this is a great alternative.

This took longer than expected to make due to all the reduction of various liquids, but it was totally worth the wait. I had some Italian chicken sausage and ground turkey in the fridge, so I used that instead of beef and pork, and it worked out great, very moist but not greasy at all. I had never used dried porcini mushrooms before, and they smelled a little funky, but the finished product was a hit. I will definitely make this again!

This was awesome! I used a small tub of Creme Fraiche (Spelling?) instead of heavy cream & added some frozen veggie mix (corn, peas, beans) towards the end of cooking for extra vegetable hit. So good :)

Cooked this tonight. Took a bit longer and made a few deviations. Instead of sweet Italian sausage, I used hot Italian sausage, as my husband loves anything spicy. Also, I'd purchased it to make the "regular" rigatoni, but he's also not the biggest fan of tomato based dishes. I also didn't have dried porcini, but did have dried. shiitake...no problem! All-in-all, it was excellent and he loved it. Oh, used a Columbia Valley Sauvignon Blanc, as I didn't have an Italian white wine in our cellar.

finally - a pasta dish without tomato! Not all of us have stomachs that can handle tomato so this is a blessing...thank you!

Two pounds of meat for 4 servings?

This was delicious!!! No modifications necessary!

Just made this as directed with 3 minor additions during the sauté: bay leaves, rosemary and garlic as per my Italian mother’s advice. Now for the non-recommended substitution-ground chicken instead of beef. I was a little worried about it but after the entire process it was still absolutely delicious and richly flavored!

I used lamb garlic sausage, because it's what I had, and added some red pepper flakes and fennel to make up for the sausage not being Italian. I used less liquid overall than the recipe calls for. I also used NutPods plant-based creamer instead of real cream (due to a dairy allergy in our house). I also took other people's suggestions to cook down the liquids individually, rather than adding all of them at once. Other than that, I followed the recipe. It was wonderful.

How not to make it dry. Drained the sauce into a large bowl. Put the cooked pasta in the large bowl. When pasta is coated with sauce, fold in the drained meat.

Why are you making two cups beef broth and only using 1 1/2 cups?

My family loves this recipe, and I’ve made it multiple times just as written. Maybe the writer, like myself, has 2 teenaged athletes? In my house, my husband, the 2 teens with giant appetites, and I get 1 meal from this with maybe a small lunch portion of leftovers. If we had younger kids or were feeding 4 adults, it would definitely feed more than 4!

This is soo good! I added pancetta and a small amount of garlic - otherwise followed to the letter. I cooked this despite being sick with a cold/rsv? And it tastes great and comforting on my sick tastebuds - I think this is the ragu I’ve been looking for.

Made with some ground elk and Italian elk sausage. Added a little bacon fat to the olive oil to give the lean elk a little boost and richen the flavor. Realized the elk was a half lb short of what we needed, so added about a half lb of finely chopped creminis to bulk things up (likely added to my reduction times a bit with the extra water). Couldn't believe how flavorful it turned out, and the lean elk did surprisingly well. Really tasty dish, and honestly pretty simply to prepare.

This white bolognese dish is now on my recipe-rotation list. The sauce and pasta are so flavorful…. I can’t imagine why we don’t hear of this more often.While seasoning the sauce, I was afraid I over salted… not considering the saltiness of Italian sausage. But I redeemed myself by adding only reserved porcini water when mixing the sauce into the pasta. I feared using the salty pasta water might add too much seasoning. My husband raved about how much he loved this dish.

It was my first time cooking with dried mushrooms. It added a wonderful umami depth to the dish! I rinsed the mushrooms before soaking it for 20 minutes. Then I used a sieve to get rid any grit in the mushroom water.