Many people refer to this dish of pasta with a tomato-meat sauce
as spaghetti Bolognese (spaghetti Bologna style).
Despite the commonly used name of the dish, you will not find
spaghetti Bolognese in Bologna so do not ask for it there.
The tomato-meat sauce up in northern Italy is called a ragu
and the pasta used is tagliatelle instead of spaghetti
(to make it even more confusing, tagliatelle is known as
fettuccine in Southern Italy from Rome downwards).
It makes sense really, because it's all about having the sauce
stick to the pasta. In this case, the flat-shaped tagliatelle
works better than round-shaped spaghetti.
While we are on the subject of what is not Italian, cappucino
in Italy is a morning (breakfast) drink.
It is generally not consumed after 11 a.m.
The ragu above comprises fried sliced onions and garlic,
minced beef, Swiss Brown mushrooms, baby plum tomatoes, and an
off-the-shelf tomato ragu sauce. The dish is prepared
northern Italian style where the ragu and the pasta are
mixed together in the last step of cooking. The dish is topped
with grated Parmesan cheese before serving.
Clem in Bologna in the last
century.
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