No, I am not being a Bolognese Sauce snob, so there!
There are many ideas on making a “proper” Bolognese sauce and the “correct” pasta to be used. Firstly, the sauce is a rather refined and delicate one. However, over time, it has become rather corrupted. It’s not a heavy, messy, stogy, tomato-meat sauce thrown on top of some overcooked spaghetti! In England it has become known as Spag Bol! What’s the world coming too!
On your behalf, I have conducted a bit of research. What a good girl! I have tested two recipes and both are pretty
much on the same page. Mario Battali’s and Lidia Bastianich’s seem to fall into line, more or less, with the “Designated Official Recipe for Bolognese Sauce” by the Bolognese chapter of the Academia Italiana della Cucina. Bon Appetit’s “Classic Ragu Bolognese”, uses ground beef, ground veal, pancetta, red wine, beef or chicken stock and a bit of tomato paste, as well as the traditional, milk.
Check it out! By the way, make fresh tagliatelle or fettuccine** or you will get the Italiana della Cucina police showing up at your door!
If you’re having a craving for tagliatelle with Bolognese Sauce, please see “Official” Bolognese Sauce.
If you would like to make your own tagliatelle/fettuccine, click Food Processor/Stand Mixer Pasta Dough.
I’ve seen all sorts of bastardizations of poor Bolognese. I will say that I’d put my mother’s recipe up against Mario’s or Lidia’s and most definitely Bon Appetit’s any day. 🙂
Great to hear from you Domenica! I know…there are many versions out there! Spag. Bol. is one that cracks me up! It’s just spaghetti with meat sauce! Watched a t.v. show about Bologna the other night…recipe pretty much the same as I found on the Internet. https://www.oracibo.com/recipe/official-bolognese-sauce/ Would love to know more about your mother’s version! I use a combination of meats, some pancetta, white wine and of course the milk, no tomatoes (even Marcella’s recipe has tinned tomatoes), just a bit of tomato paste (the good stuff). On the show from Bologna, both the woman who made the tagliatelle and the butcher warned him…non pomodoro but the chef “cheated” and added a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste anyway!