Tagliatelle alla Bolognese

"Tagliatelle alla Bolognese" .. This rich sauce, known in Italian as "Ragù alla Bolognese", is a meat-based sauce originating from Bologna, Italy. In Italian cuisine, it is customarily used to dress "Tagliatelle" pasta and to prepare "Lasagne alla Bolognese".

In the absence of Tagliatelle, it can also be used with other broad, flat pasta shapes, such as Pappardelle or Fettuccine, or with short tube shapes, such as Rigatoni or Penne. Genuine Ragù alla Bolognese is a slowly cooked sauce, and its preparation involves several techniques, including sweating, sautéing and braising. Ingredients include a characteristic "soffritto" of onion, celery and carrot, different types of minced or finely chopped meat (generally beef, and sometimes pork), wine, milk and a small amount of tomato concentrate.

The earliest documented recipe of an Italian meat-based sauce served with pasta comes from Imola, near Bologna in 1891. Pellegrino Artusi, an Italian businessman and writer, first published a recipe for a meat sauce characterized as being "Bolognese". While many traditional variations do exist, in 1982 the Italian Academy of Cuisine registered a recipe for authentic "Ragù alla Bolognese" with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce.

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