Italian cook Marcella Cantatore has shared her authentic bolognese sauce recipe that was passed down from her Father, who lived not far from Bologna (where the sauce originates from).

Besides classic pasta sauce ingredients, this recipe includes an unexpected one. Potato is not a typical ingredient in an authentic Bolognese sauce. However, just a small potato “makes all the difference, and Marcella claimed that “everyone notices if I don’t put it in”.

She added, “Dad would say that it reduces the acidity and smooths out the flavour. He always added a potato and crushed it through the sauce at the end of the cooking time. I don’t know what the science behind it is, but it consistently improves the sauce."

Ingredients

• Half a cup of olive oil
• Four tablespoons of salted butter
• Two onions
• Two carrots
• Two celery sticks
• Eight garlic cloves
• 250g bacon or pancetta
• 1kg of beef mince
• 450g of pork mince
• 350g of pork ribs
• Two Italian sausages
• One cup of dry red wine
• One Parmesan rind (optional)
• Five cups of passata
• 800g of tinned tomatoes
• Four tablespoons of tomato paste
• Two cups of beef stock
• One potato, peeled and cut in half
• Five stalks of fresh rosemary or three teaspoons of dried rosemary
• One teaspoon of dried oregano
• Three bay leaves
• Freshly ground pepper
• Salt to taste
• One tablespoon of sugar