Ragù

This article is about the Italian meat-based sauce. For the branded pasta sauce, see Ragú. For the Hindu king and Indian name, see Raghu.
Ragù
Type Sauce
Place of origin Italy
Main ingredients Meat, vegetables
Variations Bolognese sauce, Neapolitan ragù
Cookbook: Ragù  Media: Ragù

In Italian cuisine, ragù (pronounced [raˈɡu]) is a meat-based sauce, which is commonly served with some pasta. The Italian gastronomic society l'Accademia Italiana Della Cucina has documented fourteen recipes.[1]

The common characteristic among the recipes is the presence of meat and all are to be used as sauces for pasta. Typically they include ragù alla bolognese (Bolognese sauce), ragù alla napoletana (Neapolitan ragù), and ragù alla Barese (sometimes made with horse meat).

In the northern Italian regions, ragù is typically a sauce with meat, often minced, chopped or ground, and cooked with sauteed vegetables in a liquid. The meats are varied and may include separately or in mixtures of beef, chicken, pork, duck, goose, lamb, mutton, veal, or game, as well as offal from any of the same. The liquids can be broth, stock, water, wine, milk, cream, or tomato, and often includes combinations of these. If tomatoes are included, they are typically limited in quantity relative to the meat. Characteristically, ragù is a sauce of braised or stewed meat that may be flavored with tomato, to distinguish it from a tomato sauce that is flavored with the addition of meat.

In southern Italian regions, especially Campania, ragùs are often prepared from substantial quantities of large, whole cuts of beef and pork, and possibly regional sausages, cooked with vegetables and tomatoes. After a long braise (or simmer), the meats are then removed and may be served as a separate course without pasta. Examples of these styles of ragùs are the well-known ragù alla Napoletana (Neapolitan ragù) and carne a ragù.[2]

Origin and history

Ragù as a style of pasta sauce in Italian cuisine likely arose from the influence and status of French ragoûts in the region of Emilia-Romagna in the late 18th century, following Napoleon's 1796 invasion and possession of the northern regions of what is now Italy.[3] Prior to that time, the cuisine of the Italian peninsula had a long history of meat stews going back to the Renaissance period. However, they were neither known as 'ragù' nor is there any record they were ever paired with pasta. Since the 16th century, it was not uncommon for pasta to be cooked in and served with a meat broth, often like a simple soup, from which the meat was removed and served separately, if eaten at all. The first documented recipe for a meat sauce, in which the cooked meat was an integral part of the sauce served with pasta, dates to the end of the 18th century. That first ragù as a sauce, ragù for maccheroni, was prepared and recorded by Alberto Alvisi, the cook to the Cardinal of Imola (at the time maccheroni was a general term for pasta, both dried and fresh). The recipe has been replicated and published as The Cardinal's Ragù.[3][4]

After the early 1830s, recipes for ragù appear frequently in cookbooks from the Emilia-Romagna region. By the late 19th century, the use of heavy meat sauces on pasta was common on both feast days and Sundays with the wealthier classes of the newly unified Italy.[5]

Research by both Kasper[3] and Zanini De Vita[5] indicates that, while ragù with pasta gained popularity through the 19th century, it was largely eaten by the wealthy. However, technological advances that came with the industrial revolution in the very late 19th century made flour for pasta more affordable for the less affluent. The adoption of pasta by the common classes further expanded in the period of economic prosperity that followed the end of World War II. Zanini De Vita notes that, before World War II, 80% of the Italian rural population ate a diet based on plants; pasta was reserved for special feast days and was then often served in a legume soup.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Benvenuto su Accademia Italiana della Cucina | Accademia Italiana della Cucina" (in (Italian)). Accademiaitalianacucina.it. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
  2. ↑ of Cuisine, Italian Academy; Hyams, Jay (2009). La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy (English language ed.). New York: Rizzoli. ISBN 978-0-8478-3147-0.
  3. 1 2 3 Kasper, Lynne Rossetto (1992). The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food (1st ed.). New York: W. Morrow. ISBN 0-688-08963-1.
  4. ↑ "The Cardinal's Ragu". The Splendid Table. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
  5. 1 2 Zanini De Vita, Oretta; Fant, Maureen B.; Field, Carol (2009). Encyclopedia of Pasta. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520255227.

External links

Look up ragù in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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