How to make spaghetti bolognese
By admin on 2014-12-29

For decades, you British cooks have been churning out spaghetti bolognese for every dinner occasion you can think of - all the time believing you've been making an authentic Italian dish.

How wrong you are.

This week, the Italian farmers' union denounced your 'bolognese' sauce as an 'improbable concoction'. And I couldn't agree more. Spaghetti bolognese is no more authentic Italian than I am authentic British.

Because, when I first arrived in London in 1975, I had no idea what people meant when they referred to this 'famous Italian dish' spaghetti bolognese.

In fact, the bolognese served across the UK today is a purely British invention, cultivated by Italian chefs over here in the Sixties.

It panders to what the Italians believe British people expect from Mediterranean food - plenty of garlic and loads of herbs, and served with spaghetti.

But it bears no resemblance to a traditional Italian 'bolognese', known as a ragu, which has no garlic whatsoever, nor a single herb.

A proper ragu sauce is meat, onions, wine, a little tomato paste and vegetables.

Named after the city of Bologna in the northern province of Emilia Romagna, bolognese sauce should be served with tagliatelle pasta.

And not just any tagliatelle pasta - it has to be exactly 8mm wide, to help it soak up the sauce better.
So when I arrived in Britain from my native Piedmont, in Northern Italy, I wondered what on earth this 'spag bol' was that everyone was talking about.

When I first tasted it, in a little Italian restaurant, I was so horrified I sent it straight back to the kitchen. It was inedible. It bore absolutely no resemblance to the wonderful dish I was used to eating at home.

The sauce was sloppy and garlicky. And the spaghetti was unpleasant and slippery, compared with the lovely edge you get from tagliatelle, which creates a totally different sensation for the tastebuds.

In Italy, there are actually some 600 different shapes of pasta. Each is suitable for a particular style of sauce. But in Britain they were all lumped under the same heading: spaghetti. I was horrified.

The ragu sauce I grew up with is lovely and rich and very simple to make, with fresh ingredients such as celery and carrot.

The key is to allow it to cook very gently for several hours so the flavours imbue and the sauce thickens.

I always use pork instead of the traditional pancetta (Italian rolled bacon), along with the main ingredient of beef, as I think it gives an even lovelier flavour.

I also prefer white wine to red, as you don't need the extra colouring - the tomato puree gives it enough.
But it's important to let the alcohol evaporate or you are left with a metallic taste.

In 1982, Bologna's Chamber of Commerce asked the Accademia Italiana della Cucina (the Italian Academy of Cooking), to come up with an official recipe that limited a ragu's ingredients to beef, pancetta , onions, carrots, celery, tomato paste and white wine.

Milk is added in the early stages to render the meat flavours more delicate, although not all Italian chefs adhere to that.

Personally, I don't add milk. I know that some people do, but after many years of cooking, I don't believe it brings anything extra to the dish or particularly complements the flavour.

My experience with spaghetti bolognese in Britain was one of the main reasons I started writing cookbooks. I wanted to inform people about authentic Italian food.

But while everyone now happily throngs to delicatessens and can't get enough of Italian delicacies, from antipasto to panettone, there's one area I still can't get you to budge on: spag bol.

And the farmers' union in Italy certainly isn't going to change British cooking. However, far from complaining, I think they should be happy that we are all eating so much pasta.

Of course I'd love everyone to try to cook the dish authentically and serve it properly. In Italy, we put the pasta into the ragu sauce to coat it lightly and then sprinkle it with parmesan cheese. It's totally different from the British way of slopping sauce on top of the pasta.

My own recipe for ragu is largely traditional and I believe it's delicious. But, however you cook it at home, spaghetti bolognese is a fantastic dish.

In Italy, parents celebrate when their baby tries pasta for the first time. It's a milestone. It's terrific that British children are getting the same experience.

All children adore spaghetti bolognese, but I'd love them to know the real, authentic taste. It would open their tastebuds to great Italian cooking.

NOW DO IT MY WAY (OR ELSE!)

This is by far the best-known bolognese recipe which, to be genuine, has to be made with fresh tagliatelle. Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

- 500g (1lb) fresh tagliatelle or 400g dried egg tagliatelle

- 60g (2oz) parmesan cheese, grated

FOR THE RAGU

- 55g (1.9oz) butter

- 55g (1.9oz) minced prosciutto fat or pancetta 
- 1 large carrot, finely chopped 
- 1 celery stalk, finely chopped 
- 1 onion, finely chopped 
- 100g (3.5oz) minced lean veal or beef 
- 100g (3.5oz) minced lean pork 
- 1 glass of dry white wine 
- A little beef or chicken stock 
- 3 tbsp tomato paste salt and pepper

METHOD

To make the ragu, heat the butter in a large pan, add the prosciutto fat or pancetta, carrot, celery and onion and fry gently for about 10 minutes.

Add the minced meats and stir with a wooden spoon to break them into smaller chunks.

Cook for about 15 minutes to brown the meat, then add the wine and bubble for a few minutes to allow the alcohol to evaporate.

Stir in a little stock to prevent the mixture sticking to the pan. Stir in the tomato paste and dilute with a few tablespoons of stock. Leave to simmer for 90 minutes, adding more stock if the mixture becomes dry. Then add a little more stock to obtain a smooth consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cook the tagliatelle in boiling salted water until al dente, then drain and mix with the sauce. Serve with parmesan cheese.