Ragù alla bolognese is not a tomato sauce with meat in it but a meat sauce with a little tomato: coarsely ground beef and pancetta cooked slowly with a soffritto of onion, carrot and celery, a glass of wine, some tomato and, often, milk to soften it. The Accademia Italiana della Cucina deposited an official recipe with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce in 1982 and updated it in 2023. In Bologna it is served with fresh egg tagliatelle, wide enough to carry the sauce, and never, ever, with spaghetti.

Imola, home of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, is half an hour down the Via Emilia from Bologna. On race weekend this is the Sunday lunch the region would cook for you, and it improves with every hour on the stove, which suits anyone also watching a long first stint.

The ragù

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 5 oz (150 g) pancetta
• 1 small (about 2 oz / 60 g) yellow onion
• 1 small (about 2 oz / 60 g) carrot
• 1 stalk (about 2 oz / 60 g) celery
• 1 1/4 lb (570 g) coarsely ground beef
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) dry red or white wine
• 1 1/4 cups (300 g) tomato passata (sieved tomatoes)
• 1 tablespoon double concentrated tomato paste
• 2 cups (480 ml) hot beef or vegetable stock, or water
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

The pasta

Ingredients

• 1 lb (450 g) fresh egg tagliatelle
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• grated Parmigiano Reggiano

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