Ragù Sauce

The ragù is perhaps, together with pesto sauce, one of the most popular condiments of the Italian cuisine all over the world. It’s one of those Italian recipes passed from generation to generation in every family, which treasured jealousy the tricks of its own special version.
Although known as “bolognese sauce” – litterally from Bologna, in Emilia Romagna region – ragù recipe is prepared throughout all Italy from the north to the south, with small differences that make it unique in each of its variations.

But however much they may differ, they share one thing in common: all require a long cooking. The real secret of a perfect ragù sauce, what makes it so good, is time, or the several hours spent on the stove simmering slowly over low heat.
Bolognese sauce is traditionally served with egg tagliatelle or pappardelle preferably home-made, but it’s also the protagonist of many other Italian recipes like lasagna. For Lasagna it is enriched with besciamella (béchamel), or it can be served with polenta. Below you will find all the information and tips for preparing a perfect ragù.

Method

To prepare the ragù recipe start to peel the carrot with peeler or a knife, so as to remove the outer layer. Do the same with a rib of celery, also removing the top and the bottom part of the stem, including leaves that will not be used for this preparation. Remove the outer layer of the onion and then cut it all into small cubes of uniform size and shape, in a way to ensure a perfect cooking.

In a large saucepan with thick bottom pour the extra virgin olive oil and let it heat up. Put together the diced celery, carrot and onion and cook for 15 minutes until the onion are slightly transparent and begins turning a golden color. Add the bacon, stir and cook for a few minutes.

Put in the minced meat, mix well all the ingredients together and let it cook over high heat for a few minutes. Deglaze with white wine, stir well and cook until the liquid has almost completely evaporated and the bottom will be dry. In this way you’ll make evaporate the alcohol while maintaining only the aroma of the wine. In the meantime mix the tomato paste with half a glass of hot meat broth, in order to melt it.

When the wine has evaporated add the broth in which you have melted the tomato paste, and add the tomato sauce. Stir well and cover the pot with a lid. Now turn down flame on the stove at the lowest setting and cook the ragù for an hour.

After an hour add salt and pepper and a few ladles of hot broth into the sauce, it’s important to use only hot broth -and not cold- to avoid the interruption of the cooking of the sauce. Cover with the lid and cook for another 3 hours, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon so that the ragù does not stick to the bottom. If you see that the Bolognese sauce dries too much during the cooking, add a ladle of hot broth when needed.

Ragù Cooking Tips

1 – Instead of using the sausage you can use the minced pork. To prepare a good ragù sauce it is essential to choose a cut of meat with fat to prevent the sauce dry out.
2 – To get a more rustic ragù you can choose to buy whole pieces of meat and cut them with a knife.
3 – We recommend it, it’s very important to respect the right cooking temperatures for each ingredient. Cook the sauté over low heat until the vegetables are wilted and only then add the meat and turn up the fire to brown it.
4 – The classic ragù recipe provides, at 15 minutes from the end of cooking, the addition of 50 gr of full-cream milk to make the ragù thicker and more creamy. In Italy this ingredient is often omitted but if you want you can try adding it to your ragù.

Ragù Storage

Ragù sauce is one of the slow cooking Italian recipes that requires time to prepare it, but it can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container in the fridge, for 2-3 days. Alternatively you can stock up and freeze the ragù in convenient single portions ready to use when you need it.

Curiosity

According to Italian tradition the ragù sauce prep starts very early on Sunday mornings to be ready for the family lunch. On waking up then, finding the saucepan full of irresistible ragù, you could prefer to have breakfast with a nice slice of bread seasoned with a generous ladle of Bolognese sauce instead of an ordinary coffee and milk.