One-Pot Weeknight Pasta Bolognese | America's Test Kitchen (S24 E11)

Making Bolognese is often an all-day affair, but its depth and richness can’t be beat. We wanted a quicker, weeknight-friendly version that wouldn’t sacrifice flavor.

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[ChrisChapmanIAm]

This is an almost-weekly meal in our house, but I have found that if you want dinner by 6pm, you need to get started on this by no later than 4:30pm, no joke. Getting the veggie/pancetta paste to render down takes much longer than you think, esp. if you get packaged pancetta, ditto for reducing the red wine into the beef mixture. And you don't want to skip the simmering step - it really does help.

The easiest part is putting the pasta in and lid-on to cook. Kids love it and the leftovers go in their thermoses the next day for lunch.

[calvinsbnb]

A way to save even more time is to make that sofrito-pancetta paste on the weekend and freeze it in batches. Come time to prepare dinner, all you have to do is grab some from the freezer and put it in the pot!

[susanolsen]

I really cook from scratch 28 days a month. I love it- most of the time. But I LOVE that this recipes creates depth of flavor in a short time - and 1 pot cooking is the best! Thanks again for a delicious and quality recipe!

[JohnCipriano-nlcp]

This is a GENIOUS RECIPE Genius, I love how Easy it comes together.

[eggie]

A Caesar salad, nice bottle of red wine, and this is perfect for date night too.

[strll]

I don't know how many people can make this after work, on a weeknight... Children cannot wait that long, for sure.

[michelangelo]

I was wondering what to cook before watching the world series tonight and i think im going to make this. Thank you Bridget and Erin. Go Yankees.

[roecocoa]

Going to start referring to Hamburger Helper as "weeknight Bolognese" and refer horrified gourmands to this video when they complain.

[musquenonstp]

anything where i have to pull out my food processor is no longer “weeknight”

[karenroot]

This saves so much time. I am going to cook this over the weekend! I’m going to surprise my brother and see how he thinks it compares to his hours long version. Which is damn good and so flavorful ! Thanks for the shortcut! This looks delicious. Now I wish I hadn’t given the food processor to our niece😖. I did leave myself a medium sized Lil Oscar food chopper so that will have to do. I was downsizing-due to just too damn many things in the kitchen cupboards. Thanks for posting. I love your dedication to the art of cooking!👻🎃👹

[annoulaz]

Full hair updo for a cooking tutorial … that is commitment

[deniseheins]

Okay, I'm sold. However - we are huge Marcella Hazan fans and that is the only Bolognese we've ever made. I don't know about not adding white wine or milk! Well, we'll try it and see! 😆

[mddell]

A huge THANK YOU, goes out to Erin McMurrer!
I am so looking forward to making this in within the next six days.
Curious what would happen IF I don't add any alcohol. Is there a decent replacement?

[bubsmp]

When they found Bridget and Julia back in the day to be front and center they struck gold with a combo of on air likability and cooking knowledge. The folks I keep seeing now just don’t have the combo.

[etherdog]

I agree with @ChrisChapmanIAm about the time. When I made this dish it took 2 hours, but would have benefitted by simmering another couple of hours. For a weeknight dish, make this a few days ahead of time so you only have the heat the sauce and then stir in freshly cooked pasta.

[tangojuli]

What changes could u make to use ground turkey /chken broth instead of beef?

[KIG]

I’m on board for this except for the Parmesan in the sauce. Instead I would take an extra 15 minutes to add three quarters of a cup of heavy cream and let it incorporate into the beef mixture, then add the beef broth and water. I also think the is a bit heavy on the pepper, but that 8s easily rectified.

[Jay-izu]

This is more like Beef Stroganoff. Italian-American's Bolognese sauce has more tomato in it.

[davidwiner]

looks so delicious and yummy 😋 😍 😊 👌 💕 😜 😋 😍 😊

[baldr]

Looks good but that is more like a Genovese Sauce

BTW that's at least 20 minutes of frying stuff + 40 minutes of cooking the sauce and the pasta + time to prechop the vegetables for the food processor

Its a weeknight dish if you are unemployed