Bolognese sauce of Naples

Bolognese sauce is one of the most famous dishes in the world. Born in France as a stew, it arrives in Italy thanks to the Pope's transfer to the Vatican and to the Angevin court in Naples. The historical recipe involved the use of macaroni, in the '900 the explosion of the cult of tagliatelle. Bolognese ragù is one of the sauces that best symbolize Italian gastronomy. Bolognese ragù is one of the most famous sauces in the world. In Italy it is untouchable, sacred, to be preserved together with the Basilica of San Petronio: but also abroad it is very famous thanks to the narration that accompanies it.

The history of Bolognese sauce has its roots in the Late Middle Ages but its spread in Italy began only in the '800, while at the beginning of the '900 it began to travel all over the world. This is because Bolognese sauce is a simple recipe to make, with ingredients that are (and were) easily found in the rest of the globe. Especially in the United States Italian emigrants have made this condiment one of the most beloved of Italian-American cuisine with a single difference: in America the recipe is prepared with spaghetti, in Italy it is traditionally served with egg tagliatelle, but it is also used to season other types of pasta such as baked lasagna (enriched with béchamel sauce) and the typical poor dish of the past, polenta.

The history of Bolognese sauce

Its history begins in the Late Middle Ages, around the twelfth century in France, where the term ragoût once defined meat and vegetable stews cooked over low heat for a long time. Even today the literal translation of ragoût from French does not indicate the sauce, but the stew.

Bolognese sauce: the basic recipe explained easy

In the beginning everything that was cooked over low heat was ragoût. We are not talking about a recipe born by chance, but one of the "exclamation points" in the history of gastronomy: ragoût is the dish par excellence of the medieval tradition French, popular or not, because it was cooked both by the less affluent and by the court, obviously with different ingredients and cuts of meat. In Italy it arrives thanks to two historical events of extraordinary importance: the Avignonese Captivity and the arrival of the Angevins in Naples.

The history of ragù in Italy from 1300 onwards is divided into two parallel roads, one leading to Naples, the other to the Papal States. The preparation spreads through the kitchens of the Angevin (and then Bourbon) Neapolitan court and the cardinals of the Vatican, but it is still a method of cooking meat with considerable variations and different ingredients. What is certain is that this preparation is still a dish in its own right, not a seasoning. We know this thanks to art: ragoût is in fact described in numerous works and, above all, painted by Renaissance artists. In particular, Botticelli painted it in the Nastagio degli Onesti, a series of 4 panels that illustrate as many episodes of the novel written by Boccaccio in the Decameron. Probably commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent, the ragoût is depicted in 2 of these panels, the Banquet in the woods preserved at the Prado Museum in Madrid, and the Wedding of Nastagio degli Onesti, preserved at Palazzo Pucci in Florence. For 300 years this is the sauce, no more and no less, at least according to the finds.

Thick tubes of Paccheri pasta are paired with the ultimate meat lover’s sauce – Neapolitan Ragù. It’s Southern Italy on a plate and intensely flavourful and filling! Learn how to make this delicious Campanian feast.

Ingredients for 4 people

300 g coarsely ground beef

150 g pork belly

50 g yellow carrot

50 g celery stalk

50 g onion

300 g of tomato puree or peeled tomatoes,

1/2 glass of dry white wine

1/2 cup whole milk

little broth

olive oil or butter

salt

Pepper

1/2 cup whipping cream (optional)

Preparation

Melt, in a pan possibly of terracotta or thick aluminum, about 20 cm, the bacon cut first into cubes and then finely chopped with the crescent. Add 3 tablespoons of oil or 50 g of butter and finely chopped smells and sauté gently. Add the minced meat and mix well with a ladle by browning it until it "sizzles". Sprinkle with the wine and stir gently until it has completely evaporated. Add the tomato sauce or peeled tomatoes, cover and simmer slowly for about 2 hours, adding, when necessary, broth, towards the end add the milk to dampen the acidity of the tomato. Season with salt and pepper. At the end, when the sauce is ready, according to Bolognese usage, it is used to add cream if it is a matter of seasoning dry pasta.