When my family and I stumbled upon “Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course,” we had no idea we were about to discover one of our favorite weekly pasta recipes.
The series — which first aired in the UK in 2012 — follows Ramsay as he demonstrates 100 essential recipes for the home chef. It was one of our comfort watches in those early days of the pandemic.
And the 15-minute tagliatelle with sausage Bolognese, one of Ramsay’s recipes from the show, became our comfort dinner. Six years later, it’s still a family favorite.
Here’s how to make it.
Gordon Ramsay’s 15-minute tagliatelle with sausage Bolognese requires five main ingredients.
To whip up this delicious dish, you’ll need:
- Dried tagliatelle pasta
- Sausages (Ramsay recommends fennel or Sicilian)
- Tomatoes
- Half an onion
- A few cloves of garlic
If you can’t find tagliatelle at your local supermarket, pappardelle always makes for a great substitute.
I always start this dish by chopping onions, garlic, and parsley.
One of the best parts about this dish is that there’s barely any prep. It takes me about five minutes or less to prepare everything before I start cooking.
While Italian parsley isn’t part of Ramsay’s recipe, I love adding it if I have any lying around. The herb brightens all the flavors and brings a bit of freshness and color to the dish.
I also dice some tomatoes.
This dish can easily be adapted to your preferences and what you already have in your kitchen. On this night, I used cocktail tomatoes, which have a juiciness that works great in the Bolognese sauce.
Before cooking, I also prep the sausage.
You need to peel the casings from the sausages before crumbling the meat. Ramsay recommends slicing each sausage down the middle to help remove the skin.
After putting my pasta into a pot of salted boiling water, I throw my onions into a pan.
I let the onions cook for a few minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.
Then it’s time to throw in the garlic and parsley.
Ramsay recommends letting the garlic and onions “sweat until they’re soft” before you add the meat.
After adding the sausage, I use a spatula to break down the meat while mixing everything.
Don’t forget to season everything with some salt and pepper!
After the sausage has browned, I throw in the chopped tomatoes, plus a can of crushed tomatoes.
The first two times my dad and I made this dish, we thought the sauce was a little dry with just the chopped tomatoes. Thick tagliatelle and pappardelle noodles are perfect for thick sauces — they almost seem a little naked without one.
Since we already loved the pasta’s taste, we didn’t want to drastically change the recipe. The extra can of crushed tomatoes gives the Bolognese sauce a bit more oomph in both taste and texture, while still staying true to Ramsay’s flavor profile.
While the sauce simmers, I check to see whether my pasta is al dente.
My method is always to catch one of the pappardelle ribbons in a ladle, run it over some cold water for a few seconds, and then bite into it to see how firm the noodle is.
I add two ladlefuls of pasta water to the sauce and remove it from the heat while my noodles finish cooking.
Ramsay said the starch from the pasta water helps thicken the sauce and make it stick to the noodles.
After draining the pasta, I throw my noodles into the pan and mix everything together. Don’t forget to top it with some parsley and grated Parmesan!
My parents have had Ramsay’s 15-minute tagliatelle pasta on regular rotation since we first tried it years ago. My dad loves how much flavor the sausage adds to the Bolognese sauce, and my mom said she always feels “warm inside” when she eats this dish.
“It feels like home,” she told me.
The sauce is meaty and rich, the flavors are complex, and each bite floods me with comfort. It truly is the perfect quick dinner.
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