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Espagnole Sauce makes the perfect accompaniment to steak, Beef Wellington, roast beef, and more! This slow-simmered red wine sauce is so rich and deeply flavorful, you'll be pouring it on everything. Keep this recipe on hand for the holidays!
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Espagnole Sauce Recipe
Sometimes you try a sauce so incredibly rich and flavorful, it becomes the star of the show. For me, that sauce was a delicious rich red wine Espagnole sauce I was served with Beef Wellington. And when the sauce is the best part of a dish as deluxe as that, you know it's something special!
Made with a classic French mother sauce, Espagnole, this steak sauce recipe combines sauteed vegetables with tomato and beef stock, before simmering with red wine. Finally, it's strained to take out the solids, leaving a luxuriously smooth, incredibly rich sauce!
Espagnole sauce is most famous for serving with Beef Wellington for a reason- but it's also the perfect sauce for any luxury steak dinner, beef tips, pasta, and more!
Brown Sauce Ingredients
- Unsalted butter
- All-purpose flour
- Onion
- Carrot
- Celery
- Garlic
- Beef stock
- Red wine
- Tomato paste
- Bay leaves
- Fresh thyme
- Salt and pepper
How to Make Espagnole Sauce
- Chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic finely. Then melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and add the chopped vegetables. Saute the veggies in butter until soft and lightly browned, about 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir well, until it comes together as a roux. Continue cooking until the roux is golden brown. Make sure it doesn't get too dark!
- Pouring slowly, add the red wine while stirring constantly. Scrape up any browned bits, and let the wine simmer for a few minutes.
- Add in the beef stock, then the tomato paste, bay leaf, and thyme. Stir to combine.
- Bring to a simmer, then reduce to low heat. Let it simmer gently for approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
- After it's cooked, remove the bay leaves and thyme, then pour the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer over a mixing bowl. Press down on the vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible.
- Rinse the saucepan, then return the sauce to the pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste, simmer an additional 5 minutes, and serve!
Spanish Sauce Tips
- When cooking the roux, make sure not to overcook it! Espagnole requires a light brown roux, so the flour should be golden brown, not dark brown.
- Beef stock and veal stock are both classics for this recipe. Broth will work as well, but may not end up quite as thick or rich.
- Feel free to try out some different vegetables and herbs in this sauce! I like swapping the celery out for fennel stalks and adding in a bit of rosemary for a more herbal sauce.
- Some recipes use a sachet made with cheesecloth to bundle the herbs for espagnole sauce, but ours only requires a fine mesh sieve to strain the vegetables after cooking.
- Make sure to let the sauce simmer for the full time. This will reduce the sauce and concentrate the flavor, making it silky smooth and incredibly rich.
- Though this sauce classically uses red wine, you can also use white wine, if it's what you have on hand.
- Store leftover sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Reheat gently on the stove.
Espagnole Sauces FAQ
A perfect base sauce or delicious on its own, espagnole is typically served with rich, beefy dishes such as steak or tenderloin. This sauce is poured over top, often with wine added for extra flavor, to serve as a deeply flavorful sauce perfect for the most decadent dishes. It's especially famous for serving with Beef Wellington!
One of the French mother sauces, Espagnole is a sauce made with a light brown roux, combined with beef or veal stock, tomato paste, and sauteed vegetables (also known as mirepoix). This versatile and rich sauce is then used as a base for wine sauces and other sauces for beef, including demi-glace, bigarade sauce, africaine sauce, and chasseur sauce.
All it takes to make espagnole is beef or veal stock, mirepoix (AKA chopped up onion, celery and carrot), tomato paste, a roux, and a sachet (or bundled herbs)! The inclusion of the tomato paste and mirepoix is what sets it apart from other broth-and-roux sauces, giving it incredible depth of flavor even before other ingredients are added in.
Sauces for Beef
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📋 Recipe
Espagnole Sauce
Equipment
- saucepan
- Strainer
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Unsalted butter
- 2 Tablespoons Flour
- ¼ Onion finely chopped
- ½ Carrot finely chopped
- 1 stalk Celery finely chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic minced
- 2 cups Beef stock
- 1 cup Red wine
- 2 Tablespoons Tomato paste
- 2 Bay leaves
- 3 sprigs Fresh thyme
- Salt and pepper to taste
See our Beef Temperature Chart for helpful tips on cooking any cut of beef!
Instructions
- Chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic finely. Then melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and add the chopped vegetables. Saute the veggies in butter until soft and lightly browned, about 5 minutes.2 Tablespoons Unsalted butter, ¼ Onion, ½ Carrot, 1 stalk Celery, 2 cloves Garlic
- Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir well, until it comes together as a roux. Continue cooking until the roux is golden brown. Make sure it doesn't get too dark!2 Tablespoons Flour
- Pouring slowly, add the red wine while stirring constantly. Scrape up any browned bits, and let the wine simmer for a few minutes.1 cup Red wine
- Add in the beef stock, then the tomato paste, bay leaf, and thyme. Stir to combine.2 cups Beef stock, 2 Tablespoons Tomato paste, 2 Bay leaves, 3 sprigs Fresh thyme
- Bring to a simmer, then reduce to low heat. Let it simmer gently for approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
- After it's cooked, remove the bay leaves and thyme, then pour the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer over a mixing bowl. Press down on the vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible.
- Rinse the saucepan, then return the sauce to the pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste, simmer an additional 5 minutes, and serve!Salt and pepper
Notes
- When cooking the roux, make sure not to overcook it! Espagnole requires a light brown roux, so the flour should be a lovely golden brown, not dark brown.
- Beef stock and veal stock are both classics for this recipe. Broth will work as well, but may not end up quite as thick or rich.
- Feel free to try out some different vegetables and herbs in this sauce! I like swapping the celery out for fennel stalks and adding in a bit of rosemary for a more herbal sauce.
- Make sure to let the sauce simmer for the full time. This will reduce the sauce and concentrate the flavor, making it silky smooth and incredibly rich.
Nutrition
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