Italian ragu
Italian ragu, among the Italian spaghetti sauce recipes, is surely the best known Italian pasta recipe around the world.
As it originates from Bologna, it is often called "bolognese" and even if you ask a Bologna citizen about "pasta bolognese" she or he will tell you that it doesn't exist!
For them it's ragu. To the rest of the world it is "bolognese" (that means from Bologna).
As it spread and was copied all over the world, it acquired different meanings and recipes, but the traditional dish is the one that is cooked for about 7 hours. The first time I ate ragu, I thought it might be a heavy dish, with all that cooking time. But not so! It was easily digestible and totally delightful!
Ragu comes from the French word (ragout) which means ’awake the appetite’. It is used to name a pasta sauce recipe, usually made of tomato and meat.
Ingredients (4 people):
• 1 minced carrot
• 1 minced onion
• 1 stick of celery, minced
• 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1.1lb of ground meat (veal, but you can also mix veal and pork)
• 1 or 2 glasses of a good red wine
• 0.9lb of tomato puree (passata)
• 50.7oz of broth
• salt
How to prepare:
Fry the minced carrot, onion and celery with the extra virgin olive oil until softened. Before it begins to brown, add the ground meat and mix well, using a fork to distribute the meat thoroughly among the ingredients, to avoid creating meatballs.Add the wine (it's better to use a good wine, maybe the same one you're going to drink with your ragu dish).
When the wine evaporates, add the tomato puree and half a glass of water. Mix it all well and lower the gas to minimum heat. Once in a while, as the liquid cooks away, add a little of the broth and continue like this for the next couple of hours.
The friend, who introduced me to Italian ragu, used to leave the gas on minimum and go to bed, so it cooked throughout the night. I do not advise you to do the same, as I think it is very dangerous as we always have to be careful with gas. However, it gives you an idea of how long it needs to cook, and how low the gas must be.
When it's done, it will have a rust color and will be ready to season your pappardelle , the ideal pasta shapes for this sauce.
tip: Before mixing it with the pasta, add a piece of butter and mix well.
