Rich and hearty, this Bolognese Sauce recipe made in the Instant Pot brings the flavors of an all-day simmer to your table in less than half the time. Serve Bolognese over pasta, or layer with Béchamel in lasagna.
Being of half Italian heritage, I’ve been making (and eating) Bolognese sauce for as long as I can remember. Whether it’s a classic, meaty recipe, or a lighter mushroom variation, Bolognese is a stick-to-your-ribs type of sauce that warms and comforts.
To be honest, I can be picky about dishes like Bolognese, and I was skeptical about making it in the Instant Pot.
I wondered if I’d be able to come anywhere near close to the flavor (or aroma) that you get when you simmer a sauce slowly on the stove.
With a few tweaks to my family’s recipe, the sauce that emerged from the Instant Pot pleasantly surprised me. While I know that Bolognese sauce made with pressure cooking won’t always replace a slow simmer in my kitchen, the Instant Pot sauce was rich and full-flavored, and ready in a fraction of the time.
Delicious Bolognese sauce in about an hour and a half? Don’t mind if I do!
What is Bolognese Sauce?
Bolognese (or Ragu alla Bolognese) is, traditionally, a slow-cooked meat sauce. Its origins are believed to be traced to the area of Bologna, Italy in the 1700s.
I couch that statement with “believed,” because Bolognese sauce, its history, and what belongs in an “authentic” recipe are all topics that have been subject to debate and interpretation.
Interesting Read: Why You Won’t Find Spaghetti Bolognese in Italy
While individual ingredients vary across Bolognese recipes, the common thread between them is that the meat is the star of the show. Ragu Bolognese is not a thin, delicate sauce. It’s hearty, meaty, and only moderately “saucy”.
What are the Ingredients for a Bolognese Sauce?
Bolognese is most often made with minced and sautéed ground beef, pork, and pancetta (cured, unsmoked pork belly). Some recipes add veal, and less commonly, offal.
Most Bolognese recipes, including my family’s, start with a soffritto of carrots, celery, and onions (with or without garlic), cooked in olive oil.
Many go light on the tomatoes, some only calling for a bit of tomato paste added to the browned meat. We’ve always made our Bolognese sauce with our favorite San Marzano tomatoes.
A touch of dairy is added to almost all Bolognese, either by way of milk or cream. To be clear, though, this is not a creamy, dairy-heavy sauce. The splash of dairy serves to soften the acidity of the wine and tomatoes.
Adapting Our Bolognese Sauce Recipe For the Instant Pot
The most obvious difference in preparation of classic stovetop Ragu Bolognese and one made in the Instant Pot is a drastically shortened cook time.
After sautéing the soffritto and meats, classic Bolognese is simmered for 3-4 hours. Using the pressure cooker setting on the Instant Pot after the sauté, the sauce cooks for only 20 minutes on high pressure. This shortened cook time also necessitates a smaller overall quantity of liquid in the recipe.
In adapting my family’s Bolognese sauce recipe for pressure cooking, I made a few ingredient adjustments to make sure that the sauce would still have a rich flavor without a slow simmer.
White wine is most commonly used to deglaze the pan after browning the vegetables and meats. Here, I decided to go with a dry red wine to give the sauce an extra depth of flavor that pressure cooked foods can sometimes lack.
I also added a bit of tomato paste in addition to the San Marzano tomatoes. I don’t find that I need the rich flavor of tomato paste with a classic preparation, as the crushed tomatoes concentrate so beautifully on their own over 3 hours.
To make the best bolognese recipe in the Instant pot, the deep tomato flavor of the paste helped to give the sauce that all-day-cooked taste.
How to Use Bolognese Sauce
Since it’s a hearty sauce, Bolognese is best served with a pasta that can stand up to its weight. Tagliatelle (pictured) is the classic pairing, as are wide pappardelle noodles.
I’ve also served Ragu Bolognese with penne, campanelle, bucatini, and gnocchi. Very thin pastas, like angel hair, aren’t the best choice here.
Want to brush up on your pasta shapes? Check out this Pasta Shapes Dictionary from the National Pasta Association.
You can also use this sauce to make an incredible Lasagna Bolognese. Typically prepared without ricotta cheese, the dish is composed of layers of pasta, Bolognese, and creamy Béchamel. It is, hands down, my favorite type of lasagna.
Watching your carbs? This Bolognese sauce recipe is also delicious served with spaghetti squash.
Bolognese Sauce Recipe (Instant Pot)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1-1/2 cups diced yellow onion
- 1/2 cup diced carrots
- 1/2 cup diced celery
- 1 pound ground beef chuck
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 4 ounces diced pancetta
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 cup dry red wine
- 28 ounces crushed San Marzano tomatoes , in purée
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup Italian parsley , divided
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- pinch ground nutmeg (to taste, optional)
- kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper
- cooked tagliatelle, pappardelle, or your favorite pasta , for serving
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in the Instant Pot insert on the hottest sauté setting. Add onions, carrots, and celery, and cook until softened and lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add ground beef, pork, and pancetta to the Instant Pot with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper. Sauté, breaking up meats with a spoon, until browned and most of the juices have evaporated.
- Add garlic and tomato paste to the Instant Pot, and cook for 1 minute, until fragrant. Deglaze the insert with red wine, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom. Simmer for 2-3 minutes, until most of the wine has evaporated.
- Stir in crushed tomatoes in purée, water, and 1/4 cup chopped parsley. Bring to a simmer. Place lid on Instant pot, seal, and set the unit to HIGH pressure for 20 minutes.
- Quick release pressure and carefully lift lid when the float drops. Switch the Instant Pot to the lowest heat sauté setting and bring to a bubble. Simmer, uncovered, for 5-10 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce is thickened to your desired consistency.
- Stir in heavy cream, remaining 1/4 cup chopped parsley, and ground nutmeg (if using). Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Toss with cooked pasta, adding a splash of pasta water to help the sauce coat, and serve with freshly-grated Parmigiano Reggiano on the top.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
About our recipes
Please note that our recipes have been developed using the US Customary measurement system and have not been tested for high altitude/elevation cooking and baking.
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this was delish!!! made it tonight and everyone loved it. thank you for the recipe!
I’m so glad you loved it as much as we do, Lauren! I’m starting to crave it again and need to make a pot! :)
I used this recipe last week. Thanks so much! The flavor was superb and exactly what I was hoping for. Deep meaty flavor. BTW, I used pinot noir as the dry red wine ingredient.
I should note this was the first time I used my Instant Pot and I have never used a pressure cooker before. So, I was anxious when I received a “Burn” error while trying to use high pressure. The troubleshooting guide suggested the sauce might be too thick and recommended scraping the bottom. I did so but didn’t have any luck as I received the same message again. Not really knowing what I was doing, I added another 1/2 cup of water, used low pressure, and doubled the time for pressure cooking (since I was reducing pressure). Thankfully, it worked out well.
Later, I turned to the Internet to figure out if this was a common issue. Apparently, thick sauces with tomatoes might be more difficult to cook, especially in a newer model. The advice given was to put the tomatoes in last and not to stir it into the sauce (let it sit on top of the other ingredients). I will attempt that next time as I am definitely making this again (and again)!
This is amazing. I lay a pound of veal cutlets in before I put the lid on instead of the ground beef and it cooks perfectly.
I have been wondering if I could do spaghetti sauce in the Pot. This is basically my families recipe (Swiss Italian) with the addition of parsley to the soffritto, and to season a couple of stalks of rosemary, Italian seasoning, oregano, a little paprika and nutmeg and a little sugar to cut acid. Sometimes dried mushrooms soaked in hot water and then chopped fine. Can hardly wait to try this. Thank you.
This sauce looks amazing. I’ve never had this kind of sauce before so will definitely have to try it. Your pictures are also stunning.
Oh WOW I need to try this. There is nothing better than homemade bolognese sauce, but I have yet to master on in the instant pot. Instead my sauce making days are reserved for the weekends when I know I have 3 plus hours to babysit something on the stove-top. Cannot wait to try this out. And those photos???? Just fantastic!
Girl, you have managed to make bolognese look gorgeous in these photos! Some things are so hard to photograph, but this is gorgeous and I want to dive right in. I definitely need to check your mushroom variation out. I know some folks use lentils to vegify the dish, but I like the sound of mushrooms a lot more.
This is both hearty and delicious. I got an Instant Pot for Christmas and I must admit, I have only used it 2 times. I’m still a little intimidated by it but how quick and easily this sauce comes together, with using the IP, has me thinking it’s going on my menu this week! I love the red wine to add that extra depth of flavor too and it’s great for drinking alongside as well! ;)
Stick to your ribs sauce – yes please! This defines my comfort food!! I am obsessed with all things Italian like sauces like this. Thanks for sharing this gorgeous recipe!
I like your adaptations to add depth of flavor to the quick cooking recipe. Oddly, I’ve never made a proper Bolognese sauce, though I’ve made all kinds of meaty pasta sauces – really need to fix that, and try a classic!
This sounds so delicious – as always, your photos make me want to dive in head first! Bolognese is one of my husband’s very favorites, and I’ve tweaked an Ina Garten technique to make it do-able on a weeknight, but it would be even faster following these IP instructions! Saving this one for sure to make once I get my IP this summer!
I love all your explanations of why you used some of the ingredients in the pressure cooker version. Red wine vs white. Tomato paste vs no paste. It’s amazing to see such care and science that go in the development of a recipe. Too often now I see blog posts with ingredients haphazardly thrown together without any thought. I did not make this recipe just yet but it inspired me to create a meat sauce last week also. I would have used your recipe but I simply didn’t have some of the ingredients so I used your technique for my IP meat sauce.
I’ve never made bolognese sauce before, but I sure love to eat it. And I’m totally with you…those dishes you’ve grown up eating and making, it’s hard to try making it in any type of shortcut version! But it sure looks like you’ve done it, and well, in your Instant Pot
You are making me want to buy an instant pot with your bolognese sauce. I make a similar sauce with the red wine and heavy cream but never thought of adding pancetta, what a great idea, I’ll try your way next time!
This bolognese sounds so delicious, and I love that it’s so easy in the Instant Pot. I love mine, and I can’t wait to try this out, it sounds so hearty and filling.
I’d be a little skeptical about it being as good in the Instant Pot, too, but thank you for doing the QC work for everyone! This looks absolutely incredible – I’d love a bowl (or three!) of this cozy meal!
So, wow, I’m just blown away by your gorgeous photos of this dish. And I’m so glad I got my instant pot so I can finally try this! It looks so, so good!
Nothing beats a really good meat sauce for pasta. I don’t have an Instant Pot…but do have a pressure cooker…and of course a slow cooker. Perfect to make a huge batch an put some in the freezer.
I make a recipe similar to this in my Instant Pot, but this one looks amazing. I love the red wine and heavy cream for extra flavors. You can beat having it ready so fast as well.
I love this! What an amazing use for an Instant Pot- it cuts HOURS off the traditional recipe! I was just listening to a recent episode of the Bon Appetit podcast about making bolognese for lasagna- and I just thought I’d never do it the long way lol. I’d love to know if the mushroom version turns out well!