Cook the ragù
01Render pancetta and soften the vegetables.
Melt the finely chopped pancetta in a heavy casserole. Add the olive oil, carrot, celery and onion and cook gently until soft but not deeply browned.
About Tagliatelle al ragù bolognese
Tagliatelle al ragù is not simply “pasta with Bolognese sauce.” Bologna’s recorded tradition defines both halves of the pairing: fresh egg tagliatelle with a characteristic width and a meat-forward ragù cooked slowly with pancetta, vegetables, wine, a restrained amount of tomato and milk.
The Bologna Chamber of Commerce received the formal tagliatella measure in 1972. Bologna tourism material describes the ribbon as roughly 7 mm wide when raw and 8 mm after cooking. That proportion produces a broad but delicate ribbon with enough surface to carry minced ragù.
The ragù recipe deposited by the Bologna delegation of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina uses beef and pancetta with equal small amounts of onion, carrot and celery. Wine is fully evaporated before tomato goes in; broth is used only as needed during a low two-hour simmer; milk is added toward the end.
Fresh pasta should not be drowned in sauce. The ragù clings best when the tagliatelle are drained while still carrying a film of cooking water, then tossed briefly with just enough sauce to coat the ribbons. Extra ragù can be spooned over the centre rather than turning the plate into a stew.
The source explicitly excludes cream when the ragù is used with tagliatelle. That detail is useful because some older deposited notes allow cream when dressing certain dry pastas. For fresh tagliatelle, the milk already integrated during the simmer is sufficient.
