This Michelin-starred chef's favorite bolognese pasta is the best comfort dish I've made all winter

This Michelin-starred restaurant is a celebrity hot spot, most recently making headlines as the place where Kanye West took Julia Fox for their photo shoot date. 

"After the play we chose to do dinner at Carbone which is one of my favorite restaurants. Obviously," Fox wrote in her now-infamous blog post for Interview Magazine. 

But it's not just Hollywood hype. I was able to snag a table at Carbone just before NYC went into lockdown in March 2020, and still have weekly dreams about its signature spicy rigatoni vodka pasta and the melt-in-your-mouth meatballs. 

Last year I asked Mario Carbone if he'd share some of his recipes, and he taught me how to make a delicious penne with spicy shrimp that's ready in 20 minutes. 

Now with winter in full swing, Carbone thought it'd be the perfect time to make a big, hearty bowl of bolognese. As with his penne dish, this recipe was developed with Carbone Fine Food to pair with one of the restaurant's sauces — which you can buy online and in stores for $12 a jar. Carbone's bolognese features the marinara, but you can also try the tomato basil, roasted garlic, or arrabbiata.

So on a particularly rainy California night (yes, they do exist), I grabbed all my ingredients and got ready to make one super comforting dish. 

To make Carbone's bolognese for six, you'll need: 

• ½ pound ground beef 
• ½ pound ground pork or veal
• ½ pound Italian sausage (out of casing) 

Carbone told me that he likes to add Italian sausage for his spin on the classic dish to give his bolognese a "big pop of added flavor." 

• 1 cup onion (diced) 
• ½ cup celery (diced) 
• ½ cup carrot (diced) 
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped) 
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste 
• 1 ½ jars Carbone marinara sauce 
• ¾ cup red wine
• ½ cup chicken stock 
• ½ cup milk 
• 1 dried bay leaf 
• 1 ½ tablespoons salt 
• ½ tablespoon thyme (chopped) 

If you don't have Carbone's sauce on hand, you can always opt for a similar marinara or just make your own. His sauce is made with Italian tomatoes (whole peeled tomatoes, tomato purée, sea salt, basil), along with onions, olive oil, sea salt, garlic, basil, crushed red pepper flakes, and oregano. 

I diced my onion, carrots, and celery and set them aside.

I seared the ground beef over high heat for about three minutes, then drained it in my colander over a large bowl. 

As with the ground beef, I drained the pork and sausage in the colander after they had browned in the Dutch oven. 

I added half a tablespoon of salt and gave the meat a quick mix.

I stirred my garlic and thyme constantly for around two minutes over medium-low heat. 

I continued to stir while adding the vegetables and turned my stove to low heat. 

I added half a tablespoon of salt and covered the Dutch oven while everything cooked, making sure to stir the vegetables every few minutes. 

First I added the tomato paste and increased my stove to medium heat. I stirred constantly for two minutes to lightly cook the tomato paste, making sure it had completely mixed with the veggies. 

Then I poured the red wine into the Dutch oven and let it reduce until there wasn't much liquid left. I continued to stir often to ensure I didn't burn the wine and vegetables. 

I stirred everything together as delicious scents began to fill up my kitchen.

I continued to cook everything for around 40 minutes, stirring every few minutes to stop my ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pan. 

I added the milk and mixed everything together, allowing the sauce to simmer for another 10 minutes. 

Carbone recommends using pappardelle for his bolognese recipe.

I removed the bay leaf and added another half tablespoon of salt to season everything. 

Not letting the bolognese sauce simmer too long is part of Carbone's twist on the classic dish. 

"Usually this recipe cooks all day," he told me. "But my style — which I find to be more Italian-American than true Emilia-Romagna style — leaves the meat with more texture, which reminds me of my childhood." 

Pro tip: If you've made more sauce than you need for one dinner, Carbone said you can store the bolognese for up to five days in the fridge. You can also freeze it for longer; just make sure to use freezer-safe bags. 

There's just something about a heaping bowl of thick pasta noodles in an even thicker sauce on a cold night. I instantly felt soothed as I admired the big bowl of pasta in front of me. 

The bolognese had taken more time than many of the pastas I usually whip up, but it smelled absolutely glorious.

Carbone's recipe has the deep richness you'd expect from a bolognese, but still somehow feels light despite featuring three different types of meat. There's a lovely mild sweetness to the sauce, and it lifts the entire dish up. 

"The different flavors don't compete with each other, they build on each other," my mom said approvingly as she finished her plate. 

"I could really seduce a man with this recipe," my sister added as she went for seconds. 

Carbone's bolognese was so comforting and soothing on a gloomy night. It's the perfect recipe to help us get through the end of this season — plus, who doesn't love a good bowl of pasta?