Ragù Alla Bolognese
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Bolognese sauce, known in Italian as or (called in
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, ''ragó'' in
Bolognese dialect Bolognese (native name: ) is a dialect of Emilian spoken in the most part in the city of Bologna and its hinterland (except east of the Sillaro stream), but also in the district of Castelfranco Emilia in the province of Modena, and in the ...
), is the main variety of
ragù In Italian cuisine, ragù (; from French '' ragoût'') is a meat sauce commonly served with pasta. An Italian gastronomic society, Accademia Italiana della Cucina, documented several ragù recipes. The recipes' common characteristics are the pr ...
in
Italian cuisine Italian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine#CITEREFDavid1988, David 1988, Introduction, pp. 101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes, and cooking techniques developed in Italy since Ancient Roman cuisine, Roman times, and later spread ...
. It is associated with the city of Bologna. is a slowly cooked meat-based sauce, and its preparation involves several techniques, including
sweating Perspiration, also known as sweat, is the fluid secreted by sweat glands in the skin of mammals. Two types of sweat glands can be found in humans: eccrine glands and apocrine glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distributed over much of the ...
,
sautéing Sautéing or sauteing (, ; , , 'jumped', 'bounced', in reference to tossing while cooking) is a method of cooking that uses a relatively small amount of oil or fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. Various sauté methods exist. Descr ...
, and braising. Ingredients include a characteristic soffritto of onion, celery, and carrot, and different types of minced or finely chopped
beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...
, often alongside small amounts of fatty
pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...
. White wine, milk, and a small amount of
tomato paste Tomato paste is a thick paste made from tomatoes, which are cooked for several hours to reduce water content, straining out seeds and skins, and cooking the liquid again to reduce the base to a thick, rich concentrate. It is used to impart an i ...
or
tomato sauce Tomato sauce (; ; ) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes. In some countries the term refers to a sauce to be served as part of a dish, in others it is a condiment. Tomatoes have a rich flavor, high water content, s ...
are added, and the dish is then gently simmered at length to produce a thick sauce. is customarily used to dress and to prepare . Outside Italy, the phrase "Bolognese sauce" is often used to refer to a tomato-based sauce to which minced meat has been added; such sauces typically bear little resemblance to Italian , being more similar in fact to from the tomato-rich south of the country. Although in Italy is not used with
spaghetti Spaghetti () is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.spaghetti
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Una ...
(but rather with flat pasta, such as tagliatelle), in
Anglophone The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...
countries, " spaghetti bolognese" has become a popular dish.


History

The origins of the Bolognese ragù are related to those of the French ragout, a stew of ingredients reduced to small pieces, which became popular in the 18th century. The earliest documented recipe for a
ragù In Italian cuisine, ragù (; from French '' ragoût'') is a meat sauce commonly served with pasta. An Italian gastronomic society, Accademia Italiana della Cucina, documented several ragù recipes. The recipes' common characteristics are the pr ...
served with pasta dates back to the end of the 18th century in
Imola Imola (; or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical region Romagna ...
, near Bologna, from Alberto Alvisi, cook of the local Cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti, later
Pope Pius VII Pope Pius VII (; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823) was head of the Catholic Church from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. He ruled the Papal States from June 1800 to 17 May 1809 and again ...
. In 1891, Pellegrino Artusi published a recipe for a ragù characterized as in his cookbook. Artusi's recipe, which he called , is thought to derive from the mid-19th century, when he spent considerable time in Bologna ( being a generic term for pasta, both dried and fresh). The sauce called for predominantly lean
veal Veal is the meat of Calf (animal), calves, in contrast to the beef from older cattle. Veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any List of cattle breeds, breed; however, most veal comes from young male calves of Dairy cattle, dairy b ...
filet along with
pancetta Pancetta () is a Salting (food)#Meat, salt-cured pork belly meat product in a category known as ''Salumi, salume''. In Italy, it is often used to add depth to soups and pasta. (in Italian). Uses For cooking, pancetta is often cut into cubes ( ...
, butter, onion, and carrot. The meats and vegetables were to be finely minced, cooked with butter until the meats browned, then covered and cooked with broth. No tomatoes were included. Artusi commented that the taste could be made even more pleasant by adding small pieces of dried mushroom, a few slices of
truffle A truffle is the Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, one of the species of the genus ''Tuber (fungus), Tuber''. More than one hundred other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including ''Geopora'', ''P ...
or chicken liver cooked with the meat and diced. As a final touch, he also suggested adding half a glass of cream to the sauce when it was completely done to make it taste even smoother. Artusi recommended serving this sauce with a medium size pasta ("horse teeth") made from durum wheat. The pasta was to be made fresh, cooked until it was
al dente In cooking, al dente (, ; ) pasta or rice is cooked to be firm to the bite. The term also extends to firmly-cooked vegetables. In contemporary Italian cooking, it is considered to be the ideal consistency for pasta and involves a brief cooking ...
, and then flavored with the sauce and
Parmesan cheese Parmesan (, ) is an Italian hard, granular cheese produced from cow's milk and aged at least 12 months. It is a grana-type cheese, along with Grana Padano, the historic , and others. The term ''Parmesan'' may refer to either Parmigiano ...
.


Evolution and variations

Since Artusi recorded and subsequently published his recipe for , what is now has evolved with the cuisine of the region. Most notable is the preferred choice of pasta, which today is widely recognized as fresh tagliatelle. Another reflection of the evolution of the cuisine since its inception, is the addition of tomato, either as a puree or as a concentrated paste. In 1982, the Italian Academy of Cuisine (), an organization dedicated to preserving the culinary heritage of Italy, recorded and deposited a recipe for "classic Bolognese ragù" with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce (). A version of the academy's recipe for American kitchens was also published. A new version of the classic recipe was published in 2023 by the Italian Academy of Cuisine; this new version was also been deposited in the Bologna Chamber of Commerce. Nowadays, there are many slight variations of the recipe even among native Italian chefs,Hazan, Marcella ''Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking'', Knopf. . and the repertoire has been further broadened by some American chefs known for their expertise in Italian cuisine. The numerous variations among recipes for have led many to search for the definitive, authentic recipe. Some have suggested the recipe registered by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina in 1982 as the "most authentic". According to UK cookbook author and food writer Felicity Cloake, "The fact is that there is no definitive recipe for a Bolognese meat sauce, but to be worthy of the name, it should respect the traditions of the area."


Traditional service and use

In
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, ragù is traditionally paired and served with tagliatelle made with eggs and northern Italy's soft wheat flour. Acceptable alternatives to fresh tagliatelle include other broad flat pasta shapes, such as pappardelle or fettuccine, and tube shapes, such as
rigatoni Rigatoni (, ) is a type of pasta. They are larger than penne and ziti, and sometimes slightly curved, but not as curved as elbow macaroni. Rigatoni are characterized by ridges along their length, sometimes spiraling around the tube; unlike pe ...
and penne. While the combination of the ragù with fresh tagliatelle remains the most traditional and authentic in the Bolognese cuisine, some—such as Piero Valdiserra—have argued in favor of capitalizing on its already internationally widespread combination with spaghetti, even by attempting to portray it as not entirely foreign to local tradition. , along with béchamel sauce, is also used to prepare .


International Day of Italian Cuisines 2010

Gruppo Virtuale Cuochi Italiani (GVCI), an international organization and network of culinary professionals dedicated to authentic Italian cuisine, annually organizes and promotes an International Day of Italian Cuisines (IDIC). In 2010, was the official dish for IDIC. The event, held on 17 January 2010, included participation by 450 professional chefs in 50 countries who prepared the signature dish according to an authentic recipe provided by chef Mario Caramella. Media coverage was broad internationally, but reports often incorrectly identified the recipe followed as that of Accademia Italiana della Cucina, and some included stock photographs of spaghetti bolognese.


Spaghetti bolognese

Spaghetti bolognese, often shortened to "spag bol" in the UK and Australia, is a popular pasta dish outside Italy, although not part of Italian cuisine. The dish is generally perceived as inauthentic by Italians. The origins of the dish are unclear, but it may have evolved in the context of early 20th-century emigration of southern Italians to the Americas (particularly the United States) as a sort of fusion influenced by the tomato-rich style of Neapolitan ragù or it may have developed in immigrant restaurants in Britain in the post-war era. The first mention of this combination appeared in the book ''Practical Italian recipes for American kitchens'', written by Julia Lovejoy Cuniberti in 1917, and published to raise funds for the families of Italian soldiers, at the time fighting in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. In the book, Bolognese sauce is recommended for "macaroni or spaghetti", which were already widespread in the United States (tagliatelle, which is traditionally made fresh and difficult to export, was less common).


See also

*
List of sauces The following is a list of notable Culinary art, culinary and prepared sauces used in cooking and food service. General * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * – Creamy sauce accompanies with seafood * * * * * * ...
* Neapolitan ragù *
Ragù In Italian cuisine, ragù (; from French '' ragoût'') is a meat sauce commonly served with pasta. An Italian gastronomic society, Accademia Italiana della Cucina, documented several ragù recipes. The recipes' common characteristics are the pr ...
*


Notes


References


Further reading

* {{Cuisine of Italy Cuisine of Emilia-Romagna Culture in Bologna Ground meat Italian sauces Meat-based sauces Tomato sauces