Is spaghetti bolognese Italian?
"There is no such thing as an “authentic” ragù alla bolognese".
Felicity Cloake
Another very authoritative statement that was made in my Italian class was that spaghetti bolognese is actually an American dish. Again I kept quiet, though with more reason because I did know that there was a meat sauce called ragù bolognese and one of the other members of the class did indeed mention this. I had a vague idea that this sauce involved long cooking and actual chunks of meat rather than mince. Anyway I stored it away for a potential blog subject. And here we are.
My fellow student was half right I think. But it seems to me that the real crime to the Italians is that the sauce is eaten with spaghetti and not tagliatelle or fettuccine or pappardelle. In other words a flat egg noodle rather than spindly spaghetti. So yes, there is no such Italian dish as spaghetti bolognese. As to the sauce - well as Felicity Cloake says, there really doesn't seem to be an authentic version.
How spaghetti bolognese came to be is probably due to the Italian diaspora, or more specifically the southern Italian diaspora which took its spaghetti and tomatoes to America, the rest of Europe and Australia. I saw articles that claimed it as an English invention, so I suspect you can't actually pin it down to America, England or anywhere else. But the other inauthentic thing seems to be the tomatoes, and really the sauce resembles the similar ragù Napolitano rather than the ragù bolognese. Most of those immigrants were from the south, and it is said they adapted their recipe to the English speaking world, though quite how I have no idea, as it seems to be pretty Italian to me. What's English, American or Australian about bolognese sauce? Garlic, all those tomatoes, oregano or basil? No I think it really should just be called spaghetti napolitani.
Historically a similar sauce (without the tomatoes of course) was made way back in Roman times, but it seems the first recipes were written down in the late 18th century in Imola near Bologna and then in 1891when it was described as bolognese. An 'official' version was written in 1982 by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina but really every chef, Italian or otherwise, who attempts this dish will have their own version, some of them extreme. Heston for example has star anise in his (shown below) and I saw that somebody added chocolate, and somebody else, coffee.
"The many variations tend to be based on a common theme. For instance, garlic is absent from all of the recipes mentioned above, as are herbs other than the parsimonious use of bay leaves by some. Seasoning is limited to salt, pepper and the occasional pinch of nutmeg. In all of the recipes, meats dominate as the principal ingredient, while tomatoes, in one form or another, are only an auxiliary ingredient." Wikipedia
Going back to my thought that it was made with actual meat, all the more or less 'authentic' recipes that I found - Claudia Roden, Elizabeth David, Robert Carrier used mincemeat. In fact I have yet to find a recipe with chopped meat rather than minced. What that meat is, though, is up for discussion. A mixture of beef, veal and pork in the form of bacon or pancetta seems to be the most common mix. Chicken livers, cooked separately, mashed and added later in the process are another relatively common thing.
Tomatoes not so much, sometimes none at all, sometimes just some passata or purée. The tomatoes support the Neapolitan thesis. But the really surprising thing seems to be no garlic and no herbs. Those seeking authenticity don't seem to be too fussed as to whether you use white or red wine, or even stock and lots of them champion the addition of milk or cream to smooth it out. And they all cook it for ages. Heston's version took something like a whole day I think.
"to stay true to the spirit of the dish, white wine, meat and milk, rather than tomatoes or Chianti, should be the key flavours. Cook long and slow, freeze any extra for weeknight suppers, and serve with anything but spaghetti." Felicity Cloake
Here are two that supposedly follow this vague mantra. The one on the left is one served in Bologna, and the second is from Rachel Roddy in the Guardian trying to be authentic. And it does look a touch more authentic. The one from Bologna looks a bit too tomatoey to me.
Oh I forgot to mention that virtually all of the recipes begin with sweating a mix of onion, carrot and celery, before adding the meat.
It is true though, that when in Italy asking for spaghetti bolognese is a bit of a no-no.
So how does mine differ from the authentic thing? Well I sometimes add mushrooms to the mix (occasionally seen in some recipes but not often), I do use a lot of tomatoes both in the form of actual tomatoes whether fresh or tinned, with some purée as well. Even occasionally some passata or dried tomatoes. I use garlic, and I don't cook it for very long and I add herbs too - whatever is to hand. However, Spaghetti Bolognese does deserve the honour of being the first 'foreign' dish that I ever cooked. I got the recipe from a woman's magazine - probably Family Circle. It definitely had garlic in it because my mother and I simply did not know what a clove of garlic was. One of those small bits or the whole thing? Fortunately we guessed it was one of the small bits. But yes it had garlic - and you served it with spaghetti, which was virtually the only past you could get back then anyway.
"Think of the real bolognese as a party of shy ingredients who need careful introducing to each other if they're going to get happily intimate. You will need 40 minutes to an hour to get everything going and at least another hour for the sauce to develop its gorgeousness. If you have a whole afternoon, better still, or if you can cook a big batch and leave it to combine and develop (preferably not in the fridge) overnight, so much the better." Simon Schama
Now I really don't think of Simon Schama as a cook, but then he might have been interested from a historical point of view. Anyway I'm obviously a failure at bolognese, whatever it might mean. I should hang my head in shame, No strike that. My bolognese is pretty tasty, though these days it most often used as the sauce in lasagne - which is rather more authentic. And perhaps explains the milk and the cream. So I should be proud of it, whether it's authentic ragú bolognese or not.
