Ragù alla Bolognese
Bolognese sauce, is known in Italy as ragù alla Bolognese and the reason for the name is that it originates from the city of Bologna in the Reggio of Emilia Romagna. The genuine ragù alla Bolognese is a slow cooked sauce which involves several techniques, including sweating, sautéing and braising. The ingredients include a soffritto of onion, celery and carrot sautéed in olive oil and then according to the recipe registered to the city of Bologna includes finely chopped pancetta and pork, beef and veal meat are added to the pot, with white wine and a small amount of tomato paste and then tomato passata. It is seasoned only with salt and pepper and cooked over several hours with only water being add when it gets a bit dry and before serving a cup of milk is added and stirred in. Normally tagliatelle is used but also other broad, flat pasta shapes, such as pappardelle or fettuccine, or with tortellini, but never ever with spaghetti!
Of course we all know this one as spaghetti Bolognese, but to the true Bologna this will not work. They don’t use spaghetti. Spaghetti comes from the south and is made of wheat and water and of course they say the sauce would not stick properly to the spaghetti! Anyway, that’s how we eat it outside of Italy, although this recipe is mainly for the Ragù so you can use whichever pasta you like.
One other point is that yes we can all follow the recipe and be really traditional, but to be honest and most of you that love to cook will say, it’s all about what you feel when it comes to a dish like this and most families have their own recipe. It is a great way of using wild boar for example. Some people use minced beef, some pork and some pork and beef. Also regarding the vegetables used. Of course the soffritto of onion, celery and carrot goes without saying. Another option is the seasoning. I know in the UK I always used mixed Italian herbs but since my recent holiday in the Bologna region I follow the recipe that most Bolognians use which is seasoning with just salt and pepper.
On October 17, 1982, the Bolognese chapter of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, “after having carried out long and laborious investigations and conducted studies and research”, announced the above recipe to be the official one. However, I have discovered that most restaurants use red wine and they leave out the pancetta.
Anyway I will leave that up to you budding chefs to decide!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
400g fresh egg tagliatelle
500g minced pork and beef (in the original recipe this would be 50% pork, 25% beef and 25% veal)
50g carrot, finely chopped
50g celery, finely chopped
50g onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp triple concentrated tomato purée or tomato paste (if using double concentrated, increase the quantity by about a third
400ml tomato passata
150ml dry red or white wine
150 ml fresh milk
olive oil
salt and pepper
Preparation method:
Fry the soffritto of onion, carrot and celery stirring from time to time until the onion is transparent and glossy, add the minced pork and beef and cook until it is lightly browned. Add the tomato purée and the wine and mix well, cook off the wine then add the passata and season with salt and pepper.
Cook at a meadium heat so that it keeps reducing for about 3 or 4 hours. When it gets a bit dry add a couple of 100 ml of water and stir in.
When it is looking about ready pour in the milk and stir it in until absorbed.
In a large pot bring some water to a boil, salt the water and add your tagliatelle.
I usually put a third pan on the stove and heat it, then add a couple of serving spoons fulls of the ragù. When the tagliatelle is ready, I use a spaghetti ladle and lift up tagliatelle and drag it over to the ragù. When there is enough pasta I add some more ragù and then mix it together before serving into bowls.
I usually grate parmesan over the top and that’s it!
Enjoy!