Bolognese by Benz. Meat sauce with half tomato and one-third meat, with no sugar.
Bolognese by Benz is a ready-to-eat meat sauce from the Benz butcher shop in Köngen: 49 percent tomato, 30 percent pork and beef, plus water, cornstarch, salt, and spices. No sugar, flavor enhancers, or added flavorings – 410-gram can, two servings of pasta.
Buy Bolognese that actually tastes like meat: At Benz, there is 30 percent pork and beef in the can, and the meat comes from their own butcher shop. The result is a sauce that tastes more like a ragout than ketchup with ground meat. You heat it up, cook some spaghetti or tagliatelle, and dinner is ready in fifteen minutes.
More meat than tomato in the mouth, even if it's the other way around
The meat sauce from Benz first tastes of braised meat and only afterwards of tomato. The pork makes the sauce well-rounded and slightly fatty in the best way, the beef provides depth. The tomato brings fruit acidity instead of sweetness. The seasoning remains classic and subtle, with no chili.
The consistency is that of a homemade sauce: chunky rather than pureed, the ground meat remains noticeable as fine crumbles, the sauce is lightly thickened and clings to the noodles instead of pooling at the bottom of the plate. Cold from the can, it feels firm, but it becomes smooth again when heated.
Two qualifications in advance: This is not an Italian ragù alla Bolognese with milk, wine, and three hours of cooking time – celery, carrot, and wine are intentionally missing. And it is a savory everyday sauce rather than the sweet "kid-friendly" sauce that many know from a jar. Those accustomed to the latter will find this one too savory.
Spaghetti, lasagna, stuffed peppers – one can, three dishes
The sauce is heated in a pot over low heat for about ten minutes and is enough for two portions of pasta. It is best to mix the drained noodles directly into the sauce rather than putting it on top – just like it’s done in Italy, and it helps the sauce adhere better. Parmesan on top, done.
As for the choice of pasta: Spaghetti is the classic, but wide noodles like tagliatelle or pappardelle carry a meaty sauce better. Short shapes like rigatoni or penne catch the crumbles in their ridges. For children, farfalle or fusilli work well because they are easier to spear. For all of them: cook the pasta al dente, toss in the sauce, and serve immediately.
Beyond that, the can is a shortcut for dishes that might otherwise fail at the browning of ground meat: A small lasagna for two with a can of sauce, béchamel, and pasta sheets. Stuffed peppers with the meat sauce and some rice, thirty minutes in the oven. A casserole of potato slices, sauce, and cheese. Or store-bought gnocchi, pan-fried in butter, mixed with the sauce. If you need a more robust meat sauce for a braised dish, you are better served with the prime beef goulash from the same house.
Our tip: The sauce can handle a splash of red wine and five more minutes of simmering if you want to bring it closer to a ragù. A spoonful of butter at the end makes it velvetier. The sauce is gluten-free and lactose-free – for guests with intolerances, you only need gluten-free noodles. It is not suitable for vegetarians, and as a pizza sauce, it is too meaty.
An Italian name, a Swabian butcher
The fact that a butcher shop from Köngen cooks a Bolognese has a simple reason: ground meat is what a butcher shop does best, and noodles with meat sauce are the dish that most families cook most often. The pork comes from farmers in Köngen, the beef from the butcher's slaughterhouse in Göppingen; both are butchered and ground at the Schwanen butcher shop.
Meat, tomatoes, and spices are braised together until the sauce is thickened – the sugar, which is meant to mask the acidity of the tomato in industrial sauces, is left out. Then it is canned and heated again. This second heating preserves it, which is why the ingredient list requires no preservatives, and the can stays good unopened for about two years.
The Benz butcher shop has been in Köngen for over 100 years, managed in the fifth generation by master butcher Daniel Benz and his wife Monika. Daughter Gina, a master butcher and food manager, founded the delicatessen manufacture with them in 2019. It is the product in the range that looks the least like a butcher shop product – and that most clearly shows what 30 percent meat can do.
A word on the ratio: 49 percent tomato and 30 percent meat sounds like a lot of tomato. On the plate, it is the other way around, because meat releases flavor into the sauce during braising and tomato loses water. This is why the sauce seems meatier than the ingredient list would suggest – and why one can is enough for two portions, even though it weighs only 410 grams.
The emergency can you can actually serve to guests
Everyone has a ready-made sauce in the cupboard for the evening when everything else is too much. You can serve this one to guests and confidently place the can on the table. It sits in the cupboard instead of the fridge and is enough for two adults or a family with small children, provided there is enough pasta.
The difference from the jar in the supermarket becomes apparent on the second day: Because the sauce contains no sugar and is thickened only with cornstarch, it tastes just as good reheated as it does fresh and remains savory rather than sweet. Leftovers keep covered for two to three days in the fridge. Those cooking only for themselves can split the can over two evenings.
As a gift, it is more part of a package than the star: together with the gravy and a goulash from the same butcher, it makes a supply crate for students, young parents, or grandparents – three dinners waiting in the cupboard, all coming from Köngen.
A meat sauce where the butcher did the grinding – and you only have to cook the pasta.
