Serious Eats: Recipes
Ragù alla Bolognese
The following recipe is from the August 24 edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
Ragù alla Bolognese is one of those recipes that I'm powerless against. If I see a version of it in a cookbook, it's almost guaranteed that I'm going to try it. It's not so much that I'm looking for the perfect recipe since the stuff is amazing no matter what; it's more about exploring how the recipe has evolved. The basics are usually pretty similar: ground beef, pork, and veal slowly cooked with a mirepoix of celery, carrots, and onions along with a bit of dairy, white wine, and some form of tomatoes. Of course, that's just the skeleton recipe; after that you can add everything from pancetta or bacon to sherry, nutmeg, or even chicken or goose liver.
Domenica Marchetti's Bolognese from The Glorious Pasta of Italy has its own curious ingredient, mortadella, which makes perfect sense since mortadella comes from Bologna. Marchetti's ragù is pretty genius, rich and meaty with melting diced carrots, onions, and celery and surprisingly little tomato paste. It makes for the perfect sauce for a Lasagna Bolognese, layered with bechamel, or atop a mound of fresh tagliatelle.
Reprinted with permission from The Glorious Pasta of Italy by Domenica Marchetti, copyright © 2011. Published by Chronicle Books.
