The term derives from the French da ragoûter, i.e. “to awaken the appetite”, and originally indicated stewed meat dishes with abundant seasoning, used to accompany other dishes. Born as a meat-based dish in Renaissance France, the Ragù recipe traveled to the Bourbon Neapolitan court and then spread among the noble cuisines of the entire peninsula and subsequently also among the popular ones. In Italy, it became the traditional accompaniment for pasta on holidays. Called ragoût in France, adopted in Italy as ragù, a term that did not please fascism which attempted with little luck to Italianize it into the horrible "Ragutto", Ragù has survived to this day through culinary histories and fashions to become a tricolor gastronomic heritage .
Brought from France to Italy to the Bourbon court
The ingredients vary depending on the region, but meat is always present, almost always tomato, white or red wine, and some or all of the aromas of the basic sauté: celery, carrots and onion. Recently fish ragùs have also become popular.
If we talk about ragù, there are two regions of reference, Emilia-Romagna and Campania, the latter being the heir of the monsù who operated in the kitchens of the Neapolitan Bourbon court who imported it into Italy, we must also mention the Potenza ndrupp' c (in Italian hitch or stumble) which is cooked in Potenza. But in reality it is widespread in almost all other latitudes.
In 1773 Vincenzo Corrado in his "Il cuoco galante" had described for the first time a dish that can be defined as the ancestor of Ragù, but the ingredients are not yet those we know today (veal, sweetbreads, prawns or eggs) and the cooking is still done in broth with vegetables and aromatic herbs. Only later does it come paired with pasta or tomato.
In the 800th century the use of pork arrived, and the combination with local types of pasta
Without a shadow of a doubt, Bolognese Ragù is the best known and most imitated in the world, spread abroad by Italian emigrants who recalled the flavors of their own land in a foreign land. In the 800th century came the use of pork, the preparation of small meatballs (as in the Neapolitan and Abruzzo tradition) and the combination with types of local pasta, such as puff pastry in Emilia.
But for its definitive identity we have to go back to 1982 when the Bologna Delegation of the Italian Academy of Cuisine deposited the mother recipe at the Bologna Chamber of Commerce
The first vertical ragù could therefore only take place in Modena, an original historical gastronomic excursus conceived by food historian Luca Cesari, author of several cookbooks including a History of pasta in ten dishes published with Il Saggiatore (winner of the Kitchen stall and the Prix de la littérature gastronomique), translated into eight countries and a great starred chef, Luca Marchini president of the JRE Italia association, trained at the court of the multi-starred fellow citizen, Massimo Bottura who made his restaurant L'Erba del Re in Modena a laboratory for the exaltation of the territory and its historical gastronomic heritage. The appointment is for February 20th for a tasting cooked live in the La Pomposa restaurant which will start from the 1600s to the present day. Six recipes that span the history of Emilian gastronomy.
On February 20th, six recipes covering 400 years will be cooked live in the La Pomposa restaurant in Modena
We start with the "pullets" in ragù, one of the first examples of this type of preparation (from a 1600th century recipe by the great French chef François Pierre de la Varenne. We then continue with an egg ragù by Vincenzo Corrado, the most famous eighteenth-century Neapolitan cook at the Bourbon court who was followed by the liver ragù by Francesco Leonardi, author of the modern Apicius of 1790. The combination with pasta therefore comes with the recipe for the stew by Ippolito Cavalcanti active in Naples in the first half of the 'Nineteenth century with the sauce to season macaroni. The historical excursus ends with the macaroni alla Bolognese by Pellegrino Artusi who describes the first type of Bolognese ragù (without tomato, drawn with broth). To conclude: the classic tagliatelle with ragù of osteria della Pomposa spin off of l'Erba del re by Luca Marchini.
Below for purists who want to practice in the kitchen we give:
The recipe for the classic Bolognese ragù deposited on 17 October 1982 by the Delegation of the Italian Academy of Cuisine.
Ingredients:
300 g manzo pulp (cartella or pancia or fesone di spalla or fusello) macinata grossa
150g pork belly
50 g of yellow carrot
50 g of celery stick
30 g of onion
300 g of tomato puree or peeled tomatoes
½ cup dry white wine
½ glass of whole milk
little brodo
extra virgin olive oil or butter
salt and pepper,
½ glass of liquid whipping cream (optional).
Preparation:
Melt the bacon, first cut into cubes and then finely chopped with the mezzaluna, in a pan, preferably made of terracotta or thick aluminium, of about 20 cm. Add 3 tablespoons of oil or 50 g of butter and the finely chopped herbs and fry gently. Add the minced meat and mix well with a ladle, browning it until it sizzles. Pour in the wine and mix gently until it has completely evaporated. Add the puree or peeled tomatoes, cover and simmer slowly for about 2 hours, adding broth when necessary. Towards the end, add the milk to tone down the acidity of the tomato. Season with salt and pepper. At the end, when the ragù is ready, according to Bolognese custom, it is customary to add cream if it is used to season dry pasta. For tagliatelle its use is to be excluded. This is the "updated" recipe for the real Ragù alla Bolognese, deposited on 17 October 1982 by the Bolognese delegation of the Italian Academy of Cuisine at the Chamber of Commerce of Bologna.
Procedure:
Melt the bacon cut into cubes and chopped with the mezzaluna in the pan; add the well chopped vegetables with the mezzaluna and leave to dry gently; add the minced meat and leave it, stirring until it sizzles; add 12 glasses of wine and the tomato diluted with a little broth; let it simmer for about two hours, adding the milk from time to time and adding salt and black pepper. Optional, but advisable, is the addition, once cooked, of the cooking cream of a liter of whole milk.
