A century or more ago, the vast majority of the Italian immigration to America was from the poorer south—Sicily, Napoli, Calabria—where dry pasta and tomato sauces were the norm. “We say ‘ragù’; they say ‘sugo,’” she explains. “Ours is based on meat. There is tomato, but just a little bit. Our ragù is drier, and not so red. Not swimming in tomato sauce.”
Authentic Ingredients
At the heart of Bolognese sauce is a 50-50 blend of ground beef and ground pork. Many recipes also call for milk in the sauce, but as Zaccagni points out, this was a dish of the common people. Often the choicest cuts of meat weren’t going into it, so the milk was often added to tenderize. She leaves it out of her recipe.But the meat sauce begins with veggies: soffritto, an aromatic blend of diced onions, carrots, and celery, slowly sautéed in olive oil or butter—basically the Italian version of French mirepoix. “This is more of a brunoise,” she says, considering the comparison: It’s the same vegetable blend but finer—julienned and then diced. She shrugs, “Doesn’t matter.”
Soffritto means “fried.” “This is fried in a type of fat. We don’t care what kind of fat,” whether butter, olive oil, or even some fat rendered out of pancetta in a pan. But then she gets specific again: “There is no garlic! We do not use the onion, or in particular, the garlic, as you do!” Garlic too is more of a southern influence. It lends its flavor a bit more quickly in the pan, while with soffritto, “you need more time—45 minutes or one hour—but the taste is more complete.”
Next comes the wine. “Red wine is in general better than the white wine, because it matches better with the red meat. It is usually less acidic.” Sangiovese is a common variety in her region. “And it must be something you would drink!” It can even be an opened bottle left in the fridge for a week, but don’t use a cooking wine; Zaccagni says that really isn’t good for anything at all. Simmer long enough that the alcohol cooks off, about three or four minutes—your nose knows.
Then there’s that bit of tomato paste. In Italy, it comes in varying concentrations, and Zaccagni uses a triple concentrate. In the United States, we often get tiny six-ounce cans at the grocery store, when so many recipes call for merely a tablespoon, leaving so much to grow moldy in the back of the fridge. Look for the tube variety that can be dispensed like toothpaste and recapped so you can use it for the next recipe.
Perfecting the Pasta
From there, it’s the long cooking. “The typical recipe you have to cook really slowly,” Zaccagni says—two to three hours. During this process, the ragù will simmer down and can burn if you don’t periodically tend to it. But rather than adding beef broth to keep the liquid level up, she uses only hot water. Broth becomes more and more concentrated, which makes the ragù too salty; she recommends ragù without any added salt in the recipe, adding it to taste only at the very end.Also, the added water needs to be hot; cold water won’t do because it “shocks” the pan, potentially warping or damaging even expensive cookware, and slowing the cooking. Keep a pot of hot water on another burner and add just enough to keep the ragù from burning.
Thicker sauces such as Bolognese want more surface area from the pasta choice, so spaghetti doesn’t cut it. The name on an Italian menu says it all: “tagliatelle alla Bolognese.” Traditionally, the dish is served with tagliatelle, a flat, ribbon-like pasta cut long like fettuccine but just a bit wider, about a third of an inch. Tagliatelle contains some semolina along with typical flour and eggs, which are often absent from southern-style pastas. Another option is pappardelle, which is even wider (about an inch) but thinner than tagliatelle.
The pasta should be cooked al dente, and the sauce and pasta are finished together in the pan, with a bit of starchy pasta water so that the sauce thickens a bit and sticks better to the noodles.
Traditional Ragù di Bolognese
Serves 6- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup (50 grams) finely diced carrot
- 1 cup (50 grams) finely diced celery
- 1 cup (50 grams) finely diced onion
- 10 1/2 ounces (300 grams) ground beef
- 10 1/2 ounces (300 grams) ground pork
- 1/2 glass red wine
- 2 teaspoons (30 grams) tomato triple extract
- Hot water (or vegetable or meat stock)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
If you decide to use the pancetta, cut it into cubes and render it over medium heat in the pan. Otherwise, start with some olive oil. Add the finely diced vegetables and let them soften over low heat.
Add the ground meat, mix together, and leave it until it sizzles and browns a bit. Add the wine and let simmer until the alcohol has evaporated. Now add the tomato paste, and stir it into the meat with a little hot water.
Turn the heat to low and let the sauce simmer for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Keep a pot of water warm on another burner, and regularly stir hot water into the sauce as needed—just enough to keep it from drying out and burning.
Salt to taste and add freshly ground pepper. Serve this with tagliatelle, preferably made fresh with egg, cooked to al dente and mixed together with the sauce and a little pasta cooking water in the pan—not on the plate.
