Bolognese sauce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bolognese sauce (ragù alla bolognese in Italian, also known by its French name sauce bolognaise) is a meat based sauce for pasta originating in Bologna, Italy. Bolognese sauce is sometimes taken to be a tomato sauce but authentic recipes have only a very small amount of tomato, perhaps a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste.
The people of Bologna traditionally serve their famous ragù with freshly made tagliatelle (tagliatelle alla bolognese). Less traditionally, the sauce is served with rigatoni or used as the stuffing for lasagne or cannelloni.
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[edit] Preparation
Recipes differ greatly from a very classic and time-consuming ragù alla bolognese to a much simpler and quicker sugo di carne (‘meat sauce’). A simple but authentic form of ragù alla bolognese may be made as follows:
- Prepare a soffritto of finely chopped carrots, onions and celery and other aromatics in olive oil.
- Brown finely minced meat (beef flank and pancetta) in the soffritto. (As a shortcut, ground meat can be substituted for minced meat, at the cost of increase textural flaws. Such meat is rarely lean and the sauce is liable to be excessively greasy.)
- A splash of Cream or milk should be added now. This protects the meat from the acidity of the next 2 ingredients.
- Add a half-glass of white wine and let it reduce.
- Add small amounts of tomato sauce and stock.
- Simmer very gently until the meat softens and begins to break down into the liquid medium. This may take upward of four hours; classically one to two hours is enough.
The recipe issued in 1982 by the Bolognese delegation of Accademia Italiana della Cucina confines the ingredients to beef, pancetta, onions, carrots, celery, tomato paste, meat broth, white wine, and milk. However, different recipes, far from the Bolognese tradition, make use of chopped pork, chicken or goose liver along with the beef and/or veal for variety, or use butter with olive oil. Prosciutto, mortadella, or porcini mushrooms may be added to the soffritto to enrich the sauce.
[edit] Modern interpretations
Heston Blumenthal's BBC series "In Search of Perfection," features Blumenthal reinventing staple foods of the British diet, had once provided a 45 minute analysis of bolognaise, visiting Bologna and neighbouring towns in search of the most typifying example of the dish. His culminating recipe was based on two principles: the richness of the sauce, whilst retaining the British interpretation of the dish "like mum would make it". This included some unconventional ingredients, including pork, garlic, Worcester sauce, Nam Pla (thai fermented fish sauce), and tarragon. He stewed the sauce for 4 hours, and used butter instead of cream to "finish" the sauce.
[edit] Spaghetti Bolognese
Spaghetti alla Bolognese,or Spaghetti Bolognese, popular outside of Italy consists of a meat sauce served on a bed of spaghetti with a good sprinkling of grated cheese: Parmigiano Reggiano, ‘Italian hard cheese’ or Cheddar.
In recent decades, the dish has become very popular in Sweden and Denmark as spaghetti och köttfärssås, in Swedish, and spaghetti og kødsovs in Danish, especially among children. It is also popular in the United Kingdom, where it is sometimes known as Spag bol. In the United States as well, the term 'bolognese' is often applied to a tomato-and-ground-beef sauce that bears little resemblance to ragù served in Bologna; other terms used are American chop suey when served over spaghetti noodles, and in some Midwestern states, "goulash," when served generously mixed with macaroni or penne.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Kaspar, Lynne Rossetto (1st Edition: September 21, 1992) The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food, Morrow Cookbooks. ISBN 0-688-08963-1
- Elaborate version of authentic Tagliatelle con Ragù alla Bolognese
