ragù — Italy

Ragù is an Italian term for a sauce built on meat, simmered for a long time with tomato and aromatic vegetables until thick and richly flavoured. It is used mainly as an accompaniment to pasta or to layered baked dishes. The term covers a family of preparations found across Italy, with variations reported from region to region; on AllGastronomy, versions of this dish are recorded in both Italy and France, each with its own page, and neither is presented as a reference point for the other. To prepare a ragù, minced or diced meat is browned in oil with chopped onion, carrot and celery, then a small amount of wine may be added and reduced. Tomato, whether passata, chopped or paste, is stirred in along with stock, and the sauce is left to simmer, uncovered or partly covered, for a long stretch of time over low heat, until the meat has broken down and the sauce has thickened considerably. It is seasoned with salt, pepper and sometimes a bay leaf toward the end. What is often noted about ragù is the sheer range of versions it covers — bolognese being the most commonly cited among them — with disagreement in various sources over the cut of meat, the presence of wine, and the length of the simmer, none of which is settled as the definitive method.