Culinaria Italia - Italian Food and Cooking

400 grams fresh tagliatelle or fettucine
300 grams minced beef - The recommended cut is thin flank aka skirt (finta cartella in Italian) but any good quality mince will do.
150 grams unsmoked pancetta — minced very finely
50 grams carrot — finely chopped or minced
50 grams celery — finely chopped or minced
50 grams onion — finely chopped or minced
30 grams triple concentrated tomato puree(if using double concentrated, increase the quantity by about a 1/3)
1/2 glass red or white wine
180 milliliters fresh milk
olive oil
salt and pepper

• Fry the pancetta gently in a little olive oil until it starts to release its fat. Be careful not to burn.
• Add the vegetables and fry until the onions are transparent, stirring from time to time.
• Add the beef and cook until it is lightly browned. When it starts to make popping noises, it’s done.
• Add the tomato puree and the wine and mix well.
• Add the milk, little by little until it is completely absorbed.
• Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook very slowly for 3 to 4 hours.
• Stir occasionally and if it looks like drying out, add a little more milk.
• Serve with Fettuccine or Tagliatelle (NOT Spaghetti!)
• Serve with Parmesan cheese on the side. Alternatively toss the pasta first in a little butter and then in Parmesan before adding the meat sauce.
• Variation: The Academy allows the addition of Porcini mushrooms.

This is a more detailed explanation of the dish from Bologna Cooking School

A ragu Bolognese style is a meat sauce that is slow simmered for at least an hour to develop a complex flavor and proper thickness. Cooking the ragu in a heavy-duty enamel or similar pot will hold the heat steady and help to give a velvety texture to the ragu. Bolognese ragu is a classic sauce for lasagne and tagliatelle. The sauce also freezes beautifully.

Bolognese sauce (ragù alla bolognese in Italian) is a meat- and tomato-based pasta sauce originating in Bologna, Italy. It is typically made by simmering ground meat in tomato sauce, white wine, and stock for a long time (often upward of four hours), so that the meat softens and begins to break down into the liquid medium. The original sauce is not done with minced meat; instead, whole meat, usually beef or veal, is chopped with a knife.
Spaghetti alla Bolognese, or spaghetti bolognese which is sometimes further shortened to spag bol, is a dish invented outside of Italy consisting of spaghetti with a meat sauce. In Italy, this sauce is generally not served with spaghetti because it tends to fall off the pasta and stay on the plate. Instead, the people of Bologna traditionally serve their famous meat sauce with tagliatelle (’tagliatelle alla bolognese). Outside the traditional use, this sauce can be served with tubular pasta or represent the stuffing for lasagna or cannelloni.

While “Bolognese” is undoubtedly the most popular ragù in this country, it is also the most misunderstood.
The ragù you get by that name is usually a characterless tomato sauce with pea-like bits of ground beef floating in it, bearing little resemblance to anything you’d find in Bologna.
And not, in any sense, a ragù.
True ragù alla Bolognese contains no tomato sauce — just enough fresh or canned tomato to add a hint of sweetness and another layer of flavor to a subtle, complex mix. Like all ragùs, Bolognese is characterized by its long, slow cooking, which in this case starts with simmering the meat in milk (to mellow the acidity of the raw tomatoes added later) and wine (some use white, others red), after which the tomatoes are added. The whole lot is cooked together for about two hours

320 grams fusilli
800 grams mushrooms (as many different types as possible) — Chopped
250 grams tomatoes (tinned, pasatta or fresh - skinned seeded and chopped
1 medium onion — chopped
1 sprig parsley — chopped
parmesan cheese — optional
1 knob butter — optional
salt and pepper
olive oil

• Wash and chop the mushrooms. How finely you chop them depends on taste and the varieties you are using. I could only get standard field mushrooms, so I chopped them quite finely.
• Fry the onion and mushrooms in olive oil until the mushrooms start to release their liquid.
• Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook over a low heat for 45 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and add the parsley.
• Cook the fusilli in plenty of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and toss with a knob of butter (optional).
• Mix the pasta with the mushroom sauce and serve with parmesan cheese on the side.

Beef, veal or horse fillet — sliced very thinly
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Aromatic herbs — chopped - optional
Parmesan cheese — shaved - optional
Green salad leaves — optional

• Marinate the meat in the lemon juice for around an hour.
• Remove from the marinade and arrange on a serving plate.
• Season with salt and pepper and dress with olive oil.

1. Variation: Add some chopped aromatic herbs (parsley, basil, mint etc.) to the marinade.
2. Variation: Top with shaved Parmesan
3. Variation: I like to serve the carpaccio on top of some green salad leaves.

320 grams bavette
2 cloves garlic — finely chopped
olive oil
salt
a small bunch of parsley — finely chopped
a small bunch of basil — finely chopped

• Heat plenty of oil in a pan, add the garlic and cook over a medium heat until it is well coloured.
• Remove from the heat and add the herbs. Leave to infuse for a minute or so.
• Add the cooked pasta to the pan and mix well.

1. Variation: You can use other fresh herbs eg. mint, chives, dill etc. Whatever you fancy. Don’t try it with dried though.

200 grams dried peeled broad beans — soaked overnight
1 onion — peeled
1 stick celery
3 cherry tomatoes — peeled and chopped
1 bayleaf
700 grams wild chicory — Washed and separated into individual stems.
2 cloves garlic — chopped
Olive oil

• Add the beans, onion, bayleaf, tomatoes and celery to an earthenware pot and cover with two fingers of water.
• Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and cook very slowly until the beans are very tender - at least 2 hours. The water should have been completely absorbed at the end of cooking.
• Remove the onion, celery, and bayleaf. Mash the beans with a wooden spoon while adding a trickle of olive oil. Season with salt.
• Meanwhile boil the chicory in plenty of salted water until tender and drain.
• Add olive oil and garlic to a pan and cook until softened.
• Dress the chicory with the garlic oil.
• Serve on individual plates, arranging the beans on one side and the chicory on the other.
• Dress with a little more olive oil before serving.

1. Variation: Grazia likes to grate the onion and celery and incorporate them in the puree.
2. Variation: In some places potatoes are cooked along with the beans.
3. Variation: Dress with a little chilli oil before serving (olio santo)