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Ragù Bolognese: The Official Recipe

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February 11, 2022

I’m a little more than halfway through a week’s visit to Bologna.  Bologna is referred to as la dotta, la grassa, la rossa: the learned, the fat, the red.

“The learned” relates to Bologna as the seat of the oldest university in the western world and the top-rated university in Italy.  It has a highly educated population.

“The red” refers to the color of the terra cotta tiles on many of the roofs.

“The fat” is well earned based on the food.  This is the land of mortadella, ragù Bolognese, tagliatelle, tortellini, lasagna al forno (aka lasagna Bolognese), prosciutto, parmigiano reggiano, and balsamic vinegar of Modena among other traditional, and dare I say, famous foods.

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Let’s not forget gelato.  While I don’t think Bologna can claim title to the originator of gelato, they have perfected a style made with eggs that is consummately smooth.  A gelateria is often referred to as a cremeria in Bologna.

Tagliatelle al Ragu at at Osteria dell’Orsa in Bologna.

My main goal being here is to eat.  I want to taste some of the iconic foods of the region in the cathedral to food that is Bologna.  To that end, I’ve had dishes with ragù Bolognese three times in the last three days.  Though there were slight differences, the preparations tasted amazingly similar.  That got me to thinking about consistency.

I know that there’s an official recipe for Pesto alla Genovese which I reference in my post on pesto.  That got me to thinking about other official recipes.  After some internet sleuthing, I discovered that there’s an Italian Academy that, after substantial research, codifies and registers what it considers to be the official recipes for traditional dishes.  (Of course there is!  This is Italy.  Food is paramount.) Access to these recipes is quite limited.  (Of course it is!  This is Italy.  Food is rigorously protected.)

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My primary culinary interest is traditional recipes.  Discovering the existence of this academy has been a revelation for me.  So much so that I decided to occasionally post their recipes, translated into English with notes on ingredients and techniques as appropriate to enable my readers to recreate the taste of the original.

So much of what passes for Italian food in the States is far from the original.

Lasagna al Forno (aka Lasagna Bolognese) at Trattoria Anna Maria in Bologna.

I’ll be quick to add that credible variations on these official recipes exist but the very existence of the official ones sets a standard of comparison.  Several years ago, I posted a recipe for Ragù Bolognese.  You will see the similarity.  The main differences in my version are a greater proportion of tomatoes and the absence of dairy.  It is a very good ragù, and one that I continue to make on a regular basis.  But today, I’m giving you the official recipe.

Enjoy!

(Photo: Erikatrioschi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

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 Ragù Bolognese: The Official Recipe
Butchering in Italy produces different cuts from butchering in the United States. I’ve noted some US cuts of beef that would be appropriate based on the recommended Italian cuts. For those of you who want to try your hand at this, the original cuts of meat listed are cartella, panica, fesone di spalla, and fusillo. Broth in Italy is light. It is not an intensely flavored stock as might be common in much of French cooking.
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Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Sauté the pancetta in a heavy-bottomed pot, approximately 7-8 inches in diameter (20 cm). Render as much fat as possible without browning the pancetta. A little gold color is fine.
  2. Add the olive oil or butter along with the carrot, celery, and onion. Sauté gently until softened, without browning, approximately 10 minutes.
  3. Add the beef and mix well. Sauté until it sizzles (that is, until all liquid has evaporated and the beef begins to cook in the fat).
  4. Add the wine and cook gently until it completely evaporates.
  5. Add the tomato puree. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for two hours, adding broth as needed when the ragù becomes too thick.
  6. During the last few minutes add the milk. This will counteract the acidity of the tomatoes.
  7. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
  8. If the ragù is going to be used for dried pasta (instead of fresh pasta or lasagna), it is customary to add the cream, otherwise not.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2022 by Villa Sentieri, LLC.  All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Ragù alla Bolognese

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March 11, 2020

I grew up eating exactly one type of tomato sauce for pasta: my mother’s long-simmered, Italian-American-but-based-on-Southern-Italian (Calabrese, to be exact) ragù.

OK, OK, I sometimes ate Aunt Margie’s or Aunt Mamie’s version of the same sauce but we’re talking very minor variations on a theme.

My mother made pasta other ways than with ragù, most commonly with beans as in pasta e fagioli.  But if we were going to eat pasta for pasta’s sake, not mixed with beans or in soup, it was ALWAYS served with her ragù.

My recipe for Lasagna Bolognese will be posted in a few weeks. Get ready by making Ragù alla Bolognese and putting it in the freezer!

When I went away to university at the age of 17 this is one of the first things that I learned to cook.  Well, sort of.  There’s a bit of a learning curve but even my first attempt was respectable.

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I now make scores of tomato-based sauces on a regular basis but I keep going back to three of them over and over:

  1.   My mother’s ragù.
  2.   Ragù alla Bolognese.
  3.  Ragù del macellaio (the butcher’s ragù).

There are so many childhood memories attached to my mother’s ragù that I can’t imagine a time when it wouldn’t be my favorite.

As far as I’m concerned, Ragù alla Bolognese is the gold standard for those tomato-based pasta sauces made with ground meat.  (My mother’s ragù, on the other hand, is made with large pieces of pork.  Other meats can be added but the pork is always there.)

It is really important that the vegetables for Ragù alla Bolognese be cut in tiny dice, 1/8 on a side, often called brunoise.

Ragù del macellaio is very good but, as you might expect for a sauce linked to a butcher, it is made with an array of meats—pretty much anything you have.  I always end up with odds and ends of meat in my freezer, a bit of beef, a bit of pork, some sausage, a piece of chicken, some pancetta, and so forth.  I grind them all up and make the sauce.  The fact that it cooks, unattended, in a slow-cooker all day is an added bonus.

Just as there is an official Pesto alla Genovese recipe, there is an official Ragù alla Bolognese recipe that was codified in the 1980’s.  The ingredients go something like this:

  • 300 grams ground beef, preferably thin flank aka skirt (finta cartella in Italian)
  • 150 grams pancetta, minced
  • 50 grams carrot, minced
  • 50 grams celery, minced
  • 50 grams onion, minced
  • 30 grams triple-concentrated tomato paste
  • 1/2 glass red or white wine
  • 180 ml milk
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Every family in Bologna probably has a slightly different version.

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Some aspects of the recipe are notable.  There is no garlic.  There are no herbs.  The amount of tomato is quite modest.  Probably the biggest differences I see in credible recipes for Ragù alla Bolognese is whether or not to add milk or cream.  The official version clearly includes it but many otherwise solid recipes do not.

This is not a “tomatoey” sauce.  It’s really ground meat held together with a bit of tomato “binder.”

The version that I make most often varies somewhat from the official one.  I add a hint of garlic and more tomato.  I don’t typically use pancetta though it’s a great addition.  I never add milk or cream.

So, I’ve done it, I’ve laid down a gauntlet.  I’m advocating a recipe that’s not the official one.  I can tell you, however, that it’s darn good.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

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 Ragù alla Bolognese
I make garlic oil and keep it in a squeeze bottle by the stove. It comes in really handy for cooking and for flavoring finished dishes. You can use plain extra-virgin olive oil if you wish. In fact, that would be more traditional than garlic. For added flavor, sauté 150 grams of minced pancetta in the olive oil until the fat is rendered. Remove the cooked pancetta. Brown the meat in the oil. Add the cooked pancetta to the meat just before adding the wine. Ragù alla Bolognese should be served with a wide long pasta such as mafalde or linguine.
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Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 5 hours, mostly unattended
Servings
liters
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 5 hours, mostly unattended
Servings
liters
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed sauté pan. Add the celery, carrot, and onion.
  2. Sauté the celery, carrot, and onion in the butter until soft without browning. Reserve.
  3. Heat the garlic oil, or extra-virgin olive oil, in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Add the beef and pork, if using.
  4. While the meat is cooking, break it up into small bits.
  5. Sauté the beef and pork, if using, in the garlic oil until a lot of fond develops.
  6. Add the wine and boil it all away, loosening the fond from the bottom of the pan.
  7. Pass the canned tomatoes through a food mill.
  8. Add the sautéed vegetables, the tomatoes that have been passed through a food mill, and bay leaf, if using.
  9. Season with salt and pepper.
  10. Simmer 3 to 4 hours partially covered, stirring frequently, until reduced by 50%.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2020 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Basic Tomato Sauce

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June 13, 2019

Basic Tomato Sauce isn’t sexy or exciting.

It’s a foundational ingredient that makes cooking a lot of other dishes much easier than they would otherwise be but, honestly, until a few months ago I never bothered to make it to have on hand.

That was a mistake!

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t have tomato sauces of various types in my freezer.  I almost always do but they’re fully prepared special-purpose sauces like my mother’s long-simmered Southern Italian Ragu or my mother-in-law’s Salsa Friulana.  If I needed a basic tomato sauce as the starting point for another sauce, I just did it in the moment.

That all changed as part of attending the Master of Italian Cuisine course at the Italian Culinary Institute (ICI).  We made a basic tomato sauce (dubbed Simple Tomato Sauce by Chef John) by the gallons…ok, by the liters!

It keeps well.  It freezes beautifully.  It can be used in its own right as a sauce for pasta or meat or fish.  Having it on hand allows you to whip up really tasty pasta sauces much more quickly.  Give my recipe for Lupara a look, for example.

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Having foundational ingredients on hand has become more important since I returned from Italy.  In an effort to fully integrate what I learned, and to expand my knowledge even further, I’ve been cooking dinner every night that we’re not otherwise engaged.

As an extension, this month we started something new as a way to catalyze learning more about Italian Regional Cuisine.  We randomly select a Region of Italy by pulling a slip of paper out of an antique coffee jar.  Most of the meals for the month need to be from that Region.  This month’s Region is Piemonte.  July’s Region is Molise.

An antique coffee jar from my hometown of Johnstown, PA filled with slips of paper each containing the name of a Region of Italy.

I start by researching the foods of the region.  Waverley Root’s The Food of Italy is a big help but so are the introductions to many Italian regional cookbooks that I own.  Once I have a grasp of the traditional raw ingredients and the classic preparations of the region, I start to curate a list of dishes I want to make.  I go through my Italian regional cookbooks as well as Italian-language food websites to find multiple renditions of the dish then decide on how I will make it.

The dishes that I plan to make go on my calendar days in advance and get readjusted based on new ideas or ingredients from the market.  Sometimes a dish requires purchasing hard-to-find ingredients, like anchovies cured in salt (of which there is an 800 gram tin sitting in my kitchen right now) or amarena cherries preserved in syrup (1000 gram tin plus a smaller jar from a different company).

The Piemontese have a knack for putting anchovies into almost everything except dessert.  And if it doesn’t have anchovies, the dish probably has a bottle of Barolo, like the braised beef that I made a few days ago.

After cooking my way through Molise in July, I’ll be going to Italy for August and September.  In August I’ll be learning traditional Tuscan dishes from Great Aunt Fidalma.  September will find me be back at ICI for an guided independent study on food preservation.  I’ll resume cooking my way through the Regions of Italy in October.

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Now that I’ve been convinced of the benefit of keeping foundational ingredients on hand, I’m upping my game.  In addition to Basic Tomato Sauce I’ve started keeping infused oils.  Currently, in squeeze bottles next to my stove, I have garlic oil and rosemary oil.  Sometimes I use these to provide a little extra squirt of flavor on a finished dish.  Sometimes I use them as I start sautéing ingredients.  At this moment, I also have some mint oil on hand that I made to drizzle on a risotto with fresh peas.

Infused oils at the ready next to my stove.

I am eagerly anticipating our fall harvest of hot peppers so that I can make peperoncino oil, which is sometimes called Olio Santo (Holy Oil) in Calabria.  Does that give you an inkling of the significance of hot peppers in the cooking of Calabria?

Although Olio Santo can be used within a few days of being made, it is better to let it age for a year.  That means I’ll have to make an extra-large batch in the fall so that I have a fully aged stash to hold me until the oil from the 2020 harvest of hot peppers is ready in 2021!

I modified the ICI recipe for Simple Tomato Sauce just a bit to make it my own.  I’ve changed the name to Basic Tomato Sauce.  That’s the version I’ve posted here.

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 Basic Tomato Sauce
This makes enough sauce for about 1 kilogram (2-plus pounds of pasta). Most often this sauce is used as the base for other sauces. You can make it in larger quantities and freeze it for future use. While I prefer to pass the tomatoes through a food mill to remove the seeds and the occasional hard bit of tomato, you can skip this step. Just add the tomatoes to the sautéed vegetables, mashing them with a potato masher, and proceed as written. Since this sauce cooks quickly it is especially important that the vegetables be very finely diced.
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Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Passive Time 15 minutes
Servings
quart (plus a bit more)
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Passive Time 15 minutes
Servings
quart (plus a bit more)
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Sweat the onion, carrot and celery, with a large pinch of salt, in the olive oil until soft and the onion is golden, without browning, approximately 15 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, pass the tomatoes through a food mill.
  3. There should be very little residual in the food mill.
  4. Add the tomatoes to the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. Simmer, partially covered approximately 15 minutes.
  6. Cool slightly and blend with an immersion blender or jar blender. Adjust salt and pepper.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2019 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Angie’s Marinated Pasta Salad

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December 12, 2018

After driving a circuitous route for two days (I’ll explain why in a minute), I got home to Santa Fe from Palm Springs last Wednesday to a surprise.

My husband and I had plans to attend the holiday party for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, where he is Associate Professor, on Friday.  The surprise was that the party was a potluck and we had to bring a dish.

So, there I was on Wednesday evening, exhausted after two days of driving, with no prior knowledge that I had to produce a dish for a Friday event, coupled with the logistic challenge that I had to leave home around noon on Friday and ultimately make it to the party in Albuquerque by 7:00 PM with a dish in tow that I could neither refrigerate nor heat up!

It didn’t take long before I settled on my cousin Angie Catanese’s Marinated Pasta Salad.  This is a recipe that I’ve been making for about 45 years and it never fails to please.  It has so much stuff in it besides pasta that it’s almost a misnomer to just refer to it as a pasta salad!

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I went grocery shopping on Thursday morning, assembled the salad Thursday afternoon, and the rest is history!

You might also enjoy my cousin Angie’s recipe for Pickled Hot Peppers.

 

The availability of pasta in many different shapes has ballooned over the decades. Cavatappi makes a great replacement for shells in this pasta salad.

Now, for an explanation as to why you haven’t heard from me in two months and what will be coming up for the blog…

In early October I went to Palm Springs to complete recipe testing for the Trio Restaurant Cookbook.  One can’t really test recipes for a cookbook at 8,000 feet in elevation so I spent five weeks in Palm Springs testing and finalizing over 125 recipes for the cookbook.  I had intended to continue posting to the blog during this time but very quickly found it impossible to fit in anything other than grocery shopping, recipe testing, and note-taking!

I got back to Santa Fe a few days before Thanksgiving then, less than a week after Thanksgiving was back on my way to California to go to the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles to apply for a visa.

In early January I am going to Italy to attend a three-month intensive course in Italian cuisine geared toward professional chefs at the Italian Culinary Institute.  Because I’ll be in Italy more than 90 days I need a visa.

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My visa appointment was Friday and I was planning on spending the weekend in Palm Springs then driving back to Santa Fe on Tuesday.  The consular official said my visa would be ready by Tuesday so, rather than trust my luck (and my passport) to FedEx, I decided to drive back to Los Angeles to retrieve my passport.

It took me 3 hours and 45 minutes to drive the 122 miles from our home in Palm Springs to the consulate!  I got my passport in about 5 minutes then did some shopping at Eataly, conveniently located across the street from the Italian Consulate.  (I’d love to know who was responsible for securing THAT location!)  I then reversed course and started the drive back to Santa Fe, passing within a few miles of our home in Palm Springs where I had started the day.  I spent the night in Payson, Arizona then finished the drive Wednesday (which is when this story began).

The entrance to the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles which is conveniently located across the street from Eataly!

While I’m in Italy I will most likely be posting fewer recipes than usual.  I hope to chronicle some of my experiences at the Institute and pass on some tips and pointers on Italian food.  I hope you’ll stick with me during that time.  When I return, I’ll be back to my regular schedule of posting recipes.

Oh, and by the way, judging from how the pasta salad disappeared at the party, I think it was a hit!

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 Angie’s Marinated Pasta Salad
There is so much “stuff” in this that it could easily be the basis of a light meal with just some bread and cheese. Angie’s original recipe called for shells but other types of medium-size pasta work just as well. In fact, I think the cavatappi are especially nice given their unusual shape. If you are making this when tomatoes are at their peak, use three medium-sized tomatoes in place of the cherry and grape tomatoes. You can use 2 cups of purchased Italian salad dressing instead of the homemade dressing if you’re so inclined, though the flavor will obviously be somewhat different.
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Course Pasta and Grains, Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces, Salads, Slaws and Dressings, Sides
Cuisine Italian-American
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Passive Time 16 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients
Dressing
Course Pasta and Grains, Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces, Salads, Slaws and Dressings, Sides
Cuisine Italian-American
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Passive Time 16 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients
Dressing
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Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients and set aside.
  2. Cook the pasta in abundantly salted water until just cooked but still slightly al dente.
  3. Meanwhile, cut-up all the ingredients.
  4. Onion
  5. Bell pepper
  6. Tomatoes
  7. Celery
  8. Genoa salami
  9. Pepperoni
  10. Provolone
  11. Oil-cured olives
  12. When the pasta is cooked, drain and rinse in cool water to stop cooking.
  13. Stir the pasta and diced onion into the dressing. Allow to cool to room temperature.
  14. When the pasta is cool, stir in all remaining ingredients.
  15. Refrigerate overnight before serving.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Mom’s Lentil Soup

4 Comments

January 26, 2018

My father liked soup.  Actually, my father really, really liked soup.  Every few weeks my mother would make beef noodle soup as it was one of my dad’s favorites.  Beef noodle is the soup we had most often.  Goulash was the “stew” we had most often.  In fact, I don’t remember my mother ever making an American-style beef stew.

The first American-style beef stew that I ever made was from a recipe that my sister started using after she got married.  It was definitely not one of our family recipes, though it was good.

After the beef noodle soup that my mother made on a regular basis, other soups were just occasional affairs, though soups of various types appeared often on our table.

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Italian “Wedding” Soup was a favorite but not something that we had more than a three or four times a year.  Everyone in the family really loved Wedding Soup but, honestly, it’s a lot of work.  It’s coming to the blog next month but today we have my Mom’s Lentil Soup.

My parents in 1981

Let’s face it, lentil soup isn’t something people swoon over.  At best it is good comfort food.  That’s exactly what this is for me.

It’s also easy to make.  A few minutes of chopping and some stirring off-and-on are rewarded with a really good pot of soup.

My mother’s lentil soup was unusual in that she put enough black pepper into it to create a distinct bite.  The first time I tasted it, as an adolescent, I was surprised by how peppery it was but I loved it.   Whether or not you add that much black pepper is entirely your choice but, in my mind, it’s the black pepper that sets my mother’s lentil soup apart from the pack.

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Consistent with my mom’s low-and-slow philosophy, this soup is cooked longer that would be typical, for the average American cook at least.  Despite the long cooking, the lentils remain intact though soft.  They don’t really fall apart the way that dry beans might.

This soup freezes well so a big batch shouldn’t be a problem.

While a ham bone makes great lentil soup, it’s not something that most households have on a regular basis but a handful of baked ham or a few ounces of bacon make an awfully tasty soup.

If you have a favorite family recipe and a bit of a story to tell, please email me at santafecook@villasentieri.com and we can discuss including it in the blog. I am expanding the scope of my blog to include traditional recipes from around the country and around the world. If you haven’t seen Bertha’s Flan or Melinda’s Drunken Prunes, take a look.  They will give you an idea of what I’m looking for.

 

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 Mom's Lentil Soup
When my mother made this soup, she added enough black pepper to give it a distinct bite. The addition of a bay leaf is my only modification of the original recipe.
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Course Soups and Stews
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Soups and Stews
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Wash and pick over the lentils then drain.
  2. Shred the carrot on the tear-drop side of a box grater.
  3. Put all the ingredients in a large stock pot.
  4. Cover and bring to a boil.
  5. Reduce heat and simmer partially covered for 2 to 2½ hours.
  6. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
  7. The soup should be thick and the lentils soft but intact.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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