Good Old Afternoon Cooking - Authentic Ragu alla Bolognese

Yesterday, I've spent a few afternoon hours on making a good authentic (I hope) Ragu alla Bolognese. To many, it is also known as Spaghetti Bolognese.

During the time I was studying in Delft, I thought I could cook a decent Italian pasta or risotto. Well, that was until my Italian housemate moved in. She could cook the most heavenly dishes with, as it seemed, zero effort. Just a few ingredients, and "Pow" there was another amazing meal! I must admit that I didn't even dare to cook "Italian" when she was home! Luckily, she was willing to share her skills with the other housemates and taught us how to create some of the great dishes she knew how to cook.

One of them, as you might expect, Ragu Alla Bolognese. Preparing the sauce requires several hours. This might sound like a lot of work, but I can tell you that it is not really the case. In fact, the main part of the preparation is simmering the sauce and stirring it, which requires not much effort!

I have great memories of cooking this dish at my old student house. I always made this when I had friends over for dinner. We would all hang out in the kitchen, having drinks and helping with prepping the ingredients. Once all the ingredients are in, it just requires some hours of simmering and stirring. An ideal amount of work while entertaining guests I would say!

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The recipe

I know there are many different ways to cook this delicious sauce. And many people claim to have the original authentic recipe. However, I think that even within Emilia-Romagna (the Italian region of which Bologna is the capital) there is no one correct way of cooking this dish. Every family has its own rendition.

The version in this post is the one I've learned from my Italian housemate, and is delicious! What else do you need!

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### Ingerdients

For about 4 servings the ingredients are as follows:

• 300 grams ground beef
• 150 grams unsmoked pancetta (chopped into small pieces)
• chopped carrot, celery, and carrot (about 50 grams of each)
• A few big spoons of triple concentrated tomato puree (if you can't get your hands on triple concentrated, you can use double concentrated and use a bit more)
• A jab of red wine (half a glass or so)
• some fresh milk
• salt and pepper for seasoning

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Preparation

To prepare the sauce:

1. Fry the pancetta slowly in a thick bottomed pot with some olive oil up to the point that the pancetta is releasing its fat. It is important to not burn the pancetta as this changes the taste.
2. Add the carrot/celery/onions to the pot and fry until the onion becomes a bit transparent. Make sure to stir from time to time and not let anything burn.
3. Now it is time to add the ground beef and cook it until it is getting brown. I always wait until it starts making popping sounds.
4. At this point, you can add tomato puree and wine to the mixture as well. Make sure to stir well at this point, to let the puree properly mix with the rest of the ingredients.
5. Slowly add the milk one pour at a time. Mix in each pour properly before adding another. The milk is the tool to adjust the thickness of the sauce. If too thick, add a bit more milk. If too thin, don't add more. Simple.
6. Now season the sauce with salt and pepper and simmer for 3 or 4 hours with a lid on.
7. Make sure to stir and check the thickness of your sauce. You can adjust the thickness by adding extra milk or removing the lid for a while to let some moist out.

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Chopped celery

Chopped carrots

Serving

Other than what people often think, Ragu alla Bolognese is traditionally served with tagliatelle and not spaghetti, which I didn't this time (whoops!). Pour some sauce over the paste, top with parmesan cheese and a slug of olive oil. Enjoy!

That's it. Straightforward I would say! Thanks for stopping by!

Disclaimer:

As mentioned above, I do not claim that the above recipe is the original recipe for Ragu alla Bolognese. The recipe above is simply the way I make this sauce. If you have another recipe, I am happy to try it and learn from it!