But where does Ragù originate and where do its two most famous versions (the Neapolitan and the Bolognese) come from?

The origin of the word ragù is thought to be linked to the French word “ragout“, a term used to describe a stew of meat and vegetables cooked over a low heat for a long time.
The ancestor of what we know today as ragù was in fact a preparation from the French medieval popular tradition of the XII-XIV centuries, consisting of pieces of meat, vegetables or even fish that were slowly cooked. It could be a rich or a poor dish, depending on the pieces of meat, spices and garnishes used. Obviously, tomatoes were not used at that time.

From France, this preparation reached the kitchens of the Neapolitan Bourbon court and the Vatican, but it was still just a way of cooking meat, with significant variations and ingredients depending on the area of Italy.

In 1773, Vincenzo Corrado, in his book “Il Cuoco Galante”, described for the first time a dish that could be defined as the first ragù, but the ingredients were not yet defined (in fact, it could include vegetables, various meats, shrimps or even eggs) and it was still cooked in a broth with vegetables and aromatic herbs.

In the meantime, however, the recipe had become part of Italian cuisine and spread throughout the country with new variations and new ingredients, such as the use of tomatoes, which first appeared in 1790 in the recipe for “Maccheorni alla Napolitana” in the cookbook “Il moder Apicius” by Francesco Leonardi.
Ragù, although famous, was still considered a meat dish with sauce, and this is how Puccini remembers it in his Bohème.

In the years that followed, versions of the same dish alternated with or without the addition of tomato. It wasn’t until the twentieth century, with the spread of tomato sauce and pasta, that this recipe became the ragu that we cook and love today.

During the 19th century, however, ragu spread throughout the Italian peninsula, with the introduction of local variations such as the use of pork, the preparation of small meatballs (as in the Neapolitan and Abruzzi traditions) and the combination with local pasta, such as the handmade pasta of Bologna.

In 1891, when Pellegrino Artusi described ‘Bolognese macaroni’ in his book ‘Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Good Food’, he didn’t know that he was laying the foundations for one of the most famous recipes in Italian cuisine.
Tomatoes were not yet included, but almost all the other ingredients were: salted pork belly, veal, celery, carrots and onions, all cooked in meat broth.
Artusi also suggests some additions to enrich this sauce: dried mushrooms, truffles, chicken livers and cream. It is a white sauce, without tomatoes, but rich and tasty, as the Bolognese tradition wanted.

The definitive shift came at the end of the first decade of the 20th century, when almost all gastronomic writers opted for tagliatelle instead of macaroni (a variant already proposed by Artusi) and the constant inclusion of tomato.
To complete the ingredients of the ragu, fresh pork was finally added, but only after the Second World War, as reported in the famous “Il Cucchiaio d’Argento”, which proposes a recipe that has remained essentially unchanged to this day.

A recipe, or should we say recipes in the plural, which does not, however, correspond in all respects to the  ragù recipe deposited at the Bologna Chamber of Commerce in 1982 by the Bologna delegation of the Italian Academy of Cuisine, which we reproduce below.
But perhaps this is the beauty of Italian cuisine: that it is widespread and that it can vary from house to house.

The recipe for ‘Ragù Classico Bolognese’ was submitted to the Bologna Chamber of Commerce on 17 October 1982 by the Bologna delegation of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina.

Ingredients:

300 g of coarsely minced beef (belly, shoulder or leg)
150 g of pork belly
50 g of yellow carrot
50 g of celery
30 g of onion
300 g of tomato sauce or peeled tomatoes
½ glass of dry white wine
½ glass of whole milk
a little stock
extra virgin olive oil or butter
salt
pepper
½ glass of single cream (optional).

Preparation:

Melt the bacon, first diced and then finely chopped with the crescent, in an earthenware or thick aluminium pan of about 20 cm.
Add 3 tablespoons of oil or 50g of butter and the finely chopped herbs and allow to wilt gently.
Add the minced meat and stir well with a ladle until browned and ‘sizzling’.
Add the wine and stir gently until completely evaporated.
Add the tomato sauce or peeled tomatoes, cover and simmer slowly for about 2 hours, adding the stock if necessary; towards the end add the milk to dilute the acidity of the tomatoes.
Season with salt and pepper.
At the end, when the sauce is ready, the cream is added according to Bolognese tradition if it is used to flavour dry pasta. It should not be used for tagliatelle.