Ragù Meat Sauce (Recipe from Italy)

Ragù Meat Sauce (made in Italy)

One of the most interesting facts I learned in Bologna is that there is no such thing as a Bolognese sauce. It is just a meat ragu, of the Bologna region. This recipe was created in Florence, but is a simple meat sauce that we were able to recreate in Charlotte since.

To truly master the authentic Italian Ragù alla Bolognese one must strictly follow the below ingredients, measurements and timings.

Ingredients:
1 chopped celery stalk
half a large ﬁnely chopped onion
1 carrot, roughly chopped
4/5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
400g (14oz) of ground beef
1/2 glass of table red wine
500g (18oz) of tomato puree (two glass jars. You can find these at Italian markets.)
Salt

Butcher at Mercato Centrale preparing our
ground beef.

Directions:
Chop the celery, onion & carrot together.

Our chef, and our translator! So fun!

Put the chopped mixture in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the olive oil and heat over a medium heat.

Sautè until golden brown. Add a glass of wine.

Add the beef mince meat and continue to sauté until meat is lightly browned and all the juices of the meat have been soaked up. Add salt to taste and make sure that the meat is broken up.

At this stage add the wine and continue to sautè until the ragù sauce has soaked up the wine. Continually check that the meat does not stick and add a little water if too dense.

Finally add the jars of tomatoes sauce and salt to taste and
simmer for 2 hours. (note: the sauce is rich, but not salty.)

The ﬁnal result should be ragù sauce of a deep red color.