Pappardelle Bolognese

This Pappardelle Bolognese will transport you to Bologna Italy…well, maybe not, but it will transform your home into a cozy Italian restaurant.

Is Pappardelle the same as Egg Noodles?

Pappardelle is a wide, flat egg noodle made from flour and eggs. Pappardelle pasta originates in Tuscany, Italy. Egg noodles are a much more general and diverse type of noodle and can be found in many different parts of the world.

Is Pappardelle the same as Fettuccine or Tagliatelle?

First, let start with what they have in common. They are each a type of flat noodle pasta and a usually made from the primary ingredients of flour and eggs. They are also all Italian in origin. What separates them is the width. Pappardelle comes in at the widest of the three; followed by Tagliatelle; then Fettuccine. Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of pasta shapes (with photos).

Pappardelle is very popular because it’s wide enough to withstand some of the heavier sauces, such as the Bolognese.

Uncooked Pappardelle Pasta

The Secret ingredient to this Bolognese Meat Sauce:

The secret ingredient is time. It take time, and a lot of it for the complex flavors to integrate and develop. Don’t rush any step. It’s a labor of love. It will take at least a good 2-1/2 hours (preferably more) of simmering on low heat. So, you have time to garb a book you’ve been planning to read or watch a couple of episodes of your favorite show. Just check in on your sauce every one in a while and give it a good stir.

Steps to a satisfying bolognese meat sauce:

In a large Dutch Oven or Deep Skillet, heat four tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of the oil. Add the onions, carrot, and celery.

Cook on a low to low-medium heat until the onion, carrot, and celery begins to soften. We want the veggies to be tender but not dark.

Stir in the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute.

Raise the heat to medium. Add the ground beef to the pot.

While stirring with a wooden spoon, cook until the beef is no longer pink.

Stir in the salt, pepper, onion powder, celery powder, garlic powder, and Herbs de Provence.

In case you were wondering, the Herbs de Provence (or Herbs from Provence) is a blend of herbs. According to the jar, the blend I have includes: rosemary, garlic powder, lavender, thyme, parsley, tarragon, marjoram, basil, savory, sage, and chervil.

It smells so good already!!

Stir in the cream and cook until the cream mostly evaporates. This is going to give it such a velvety richness.

Add the wine and cook until the liquid mostly evaporates. Remember, we are layering flavors here. I wish you could smell this!

Next, stir in the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and tomato puree. The tomato puree looks a lot like tomato sauce or pasta sauce. It is not. The only ingredient in it is pureed tomatoes.

Stir in 1-1/2 cups of the chicken stock.

Lower the heat and allow the sauce to simmer for about 2 to 2-1/2 hours. The longer, the better.

The sauce will splatter, so what you can do between stirs is to cover the pot very loosely with non-stick foil.

Check on the sauce periodically and give it a stir. If during the cooking process, the sauce gets too thick and starts to stick to the bottom, add a little chicken stock.

After the Meat Sauce is finished cooking, skim the fat off the top.

To make the pappardelle and to finish off the dish:

Add a tablespoon of the olive oil to a pot of boiling water. This will help prevent the pasta from sticking and clumping together. Also, stir in a tablespoon of salt. Add the pasta to the water and boil to the packages direction.

Before you drain the pasta, reserve abut one cup of the super starchy pasta water. Stir, some or all of this into the meat sauce depending on how much you want to thin the sauce out.

Drain the pasta. I use my trusty colander to do this.

My trusty Colander.

At this point, you can either stir the pasta into the sauce (this is the traditional way), or you can return the pasta back to its pot (so you can plate the pasta with the meat sauce on top).

Serve with grated or shaved Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

If you love this pasta recipe, you’ll want to try my other pasta dishes.

Recipes included are: