Tagliatelle al ragù

Tagliatelle al ragù is a plate of long, flat egg pasta ribbons dressed with a slow-cooked meat sauce from Bologna, in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. The sauce is the dish's defining element, and the pasta is cut to carry it.

What it really is

Tagliatelle are made from a stiff dough of wheat flour and eggs, rolled thin and cut into ribbons about 6 to 8 mm wide. The ragù is a long-simmered sauce built on a soffritto of onion, carrot and celery, with minced beef and often pancetta or minced pork, cooked slowly with dry white or red wine and a small amount of tomato paste or passata, with milk sometimes added to the meat. The sauce is cooked for hours at a low simmer, so the meat breaks down and the sauce thickens rather than tasting of tomato.

In Bologna the sauce is not usually served over spaghetti. The dish is distinct from the spaghetti bolognese common outside Italy, where the sauce is tomato-heavy and the pasta is a thin round strand. The Bolognese tradition, codified by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina in 1982, uses little tomato, cooks the meat in a large proportion relative to the sauce, and pairs it with ribbon pasta.

How it's served

• Served as a first course (primo) in a shallow bowl or on a warm plate, with the pasta dressed directly in the sauce.
• Portions are modest, as the ragù is rich and the course is followed by a main dish.
• Finished with grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmesan on the table.
• Eaten with a fork, often with a spoon to gather the sauce.

How to write it on the menu

• Name the pasta and the sauce: Tagliatelle al ragù, with a note that the sauce is beef and pork ragù.
• Flag allergens: the pasta contains WHEAT and EGGS, and the dish usually finishes with cheese, which contains MILK.
• State whether the dish is made with pancetta, and whether milk or cream is used in the sauce.
• Note the cheese used, Parmigiano Reggiano or other hard cheese, as a common variant is to serve it without cheese on request.