Most people think that all pasta sauces with meat are called “Bolognese”. No. Welcome to the world of ragù
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 5 € pp)
- Salt
- 320 g spaghetti
- 600 g lamb shoulder
- 600 ml beef or vegetable stock
- 80 ml red wine
- the solid part of a can with whole tomatoes
- 1 large onion
- 1 large carrot
- 20 sultanas
- Fresh rosemary
- EV olive oil
- 60 g parmigiano reggiano
- Coarse black pepper
- lemon zest
In my life I have eaten – I imagine you too – hundreds of times pasta with meat sauces, which the majority of consumers wrongly call it Bolognese, meanwhile the correct name is pasta al ragù. There are countless versions of this culinary concept, which is consumed in whole Europe some excellent, some other garbage. On this web site you will be able to find tenths of ragù with all kind of meats (even with fish, as ragù means something cut in pieces) with or without tomato sauce, with or without aromatics etc.
We start today with a “royal one”, the ragù with lamb meat, so tasty that does not need any other fatty meat product as beef ragù do.
So, let´s start. First, we cut in dice the onion and carrot. Normally the Italian sofrito, used in 99% of meat sauces of this kind, contains also celery, but today we omit it as I think it does not pair well to the lamb meat.
We start cooking the vegetables in very gentle heat as we want them to soften. I suggest you to cook each aromatic vegetable separated in order to preserve its original colour and to stop the cooking procedure the exact point which every aromatic has.
When all vegetables are well cooked, we salt them lightly and we set aside.
Another thing that we have to decide is how we will cut the meat. The majority of people uses minced meat for its ragù, I usually prefer meat which is cut in very small pieces with the knife, some other times meat in dice as in today´s dish and some others very very small (like the nail of our smallest finger) meatballs.
So, in a large pan, we brown very lightly and in batches the meat (minced or cut) with the rosemary in the oil. The browning must be light, otherwise the meat will become too dry, we just want to add some maillard aromas to the whole preparation. We deglaze with the red wine bringing it to a boil to evaporate the excess alcohol. We add the stock and we check the salt. We then reduce the heat to minimum and we let the meat simmer for 1.5 – 3 hours, maybe more, depending on the cut of the meat and also the exact temperature, which in any case must be very low.
What we need to keep in mind is that we want the meat very very tender, to be almost melted in the sauce. We also have to care that the stock must be concentrated to sauce, thus, if the meat is ready and the sauce is still weak, we remove the meat from the pot, we raise the heat and we shorten the sauce.
We also have to remember that the lid of the pot must be half closed and not hermetically sealed in order to limit the temperature to “friendly” levels. It is important for this preparation not to hurry, a low temperature secures an excellent ragù.
When the meat is almost ready (about 30 minutes before estimated cooking end) we add the tomatoes
tomatoes. There is absolutely no reason to add the tomatoes at an earlier time, because they will create an acid environment which will tighten the meat and provoke a further delay. We remove from heat and we add some ground black pepper.
For today´s preparation we will also put the sultanas in lukewarm water to soak.
Meanwhile in a big pot we bring to boil salted water. When ready, we cook our pasta for 1-2 minutes less than the al dente written time on the package.
We drain them and we carry them in a big pan or wok with the half amount of the sauce. We add the sultanas and the half amount of parmigiano cheese and we start to mantecare, which mean continuously stirring the pasta and adding a ladle or two of boiling water, till we create a creamy result.
We put in plates and we add the pieces of meat, the lemon zest and the left parmigiano cheese.
