SPAG BOG

This is a really ugly nickname for a really lovely dish. I think it deserves better. This is the name for a cheap-eats, corner-cutting concoction that often comes out at fund-raisers, sporting events, and university knees-up. Yes it can be inexpensive to make - but it doesn't have to be - and yes you can make it in a jiffy with a jar of ready made sauce and a packet of dried pasta, but it doesn't have to be that either.

I have just finished a little obsessive research session about proper spaghetti bolognese, and I've decided that (1) it is versatile (2) it is personal (3) it has regional variations and (4) it really isn't, in my opinion, worth coming to blows over the definitive recipe for spaghetti bolognese, because Italian food is by its very nature regional, and regional variations on spaghetti bolognese aren't wrong, they're just, well, regional.

I mean, think about it: pasta and meat sauce. It could've been invented anywhere, a million times over, by people who have never been to Bologna, and don't even know where it is. So it's not necessarily a regional recipe. And if you're cooking seasonally, then you've got to have seasonal variations on your spaghetti bolognese, so really, I feel that it is really important to find the recipe of your dreams that suits your tastes, budget, and regional variation. Call it a ragu. Many people do. Or even ragout.

I tried to find the difference between  bolognese and ragu. Have you ever had the annoying experience of  looking up a question online, and then having a writer promise to give you an answer to your question, and then waffle on a bit and then end the article without actually answering the question? Well, this was my experience of the ragu/bolognese question. People talked about white wine and red wine, and the ratio between tomato and meat, and Northern and Southern variations, and some people threw in terms like Neopolitan and marinara just to confuse. As far as I can tell, bolognese is a type of ragu.

During my little fact-finding mission I discovered many different recipes for ragu, which included the following ingredients: lemon juice, lemon zest, chicken livers, sausage meat, pancetta, pork, veal or beef mince, cream, white wine, red wine, red onions, white onions, yellow onions, condensed tomato paste, passata, fresh tomatoes, fresh cultivated mushrooms, dried porcini mushrooms, herbs, (and also absolutely no herbs don't even think about adding herbs),cheese, no cheese, and these are just ingredients for the sauce.  I also read once, and only once, the suggestion that you should use garlic or onion, in your sauces, but never both at the same time. (This I read about in a cookery book in the bedroom  of a rather splendid hotel. I believe alcohol may have been present at the time so perhaps I have go this wrong because I have never read it before or since but I do think it's an interesting idea....)

The recommended pasta shapes have included papardelle, tagliatelle, fettucine, and lasagna noodles, green or white, but the one thing that everyone seems to agree on is never use spaghetti noodles for spaghetti bolognese because the sauce just slips off the noodle and ends up on your shirt. That's ironic, really, considering when you ask for spaghetti you are asking for the shape of noodle not the sauce, and what you should really be asking for is ragu or bolognese, hold the spaghetti.

Matchthepastatothesaucematchthepastatothesaucematchthepastatothesauce is the mantra.

I keep coming across the term "bronze die cut" pasta, which basically means that the noodle, when extracted, has more texture to it - for the sauce to cling to -  and therefore you get more pasta in your mouth and less on your clothing. It is actually true, and I don't think it's a gimmick. After cooking a rich sauce for an hour or so, I'd like to ensure somehow that I actually get to eat it, and not wear it.

In my own kitchen, I vary my ragu depending on where I am and what is local, seasonal, and fresh. In Winter, reconstituted dried porcini mushrooms add a lovely depth of flavour to the sauce, but in Autumn fresh mushrooms look very inviting. A Summer bolognese may have stacks of sweet peppers and fresh tomatoes instead of passata. Pancetta lardons are great in a bolognese made in Italy, but in the States the crispy bacon is full of flavour, and in Britain streaky bacon is the best substitute. In Italy, I've just come across little cartons of flavoured savoury cream, such as salmon, truffle, and porcini; a small carton of porcini cream swirled through as a finishing touch before serving is really heavenly.

There is one unfortunate element to the preparation, though. The longer you cook vegetables, the less nutritious they are. But one of the most important requirements for a good ragout is a long slow cook, and also that the vegetables are soffrito - slowly cooked - even before the meat is added. So, in terms of nutritional value, I'm not sure that spaghetti bolognese is going to be your star player. I think it's a trade-off with pure comfort value, and therefore the obligatory green salad on the side is going to be very important here, in terms of your five-a-day.( In a stew, by the way, as opposed to a ragu, if you use big chunky vegetables for the stewing process, it's a good idea to remove the pieces of stewing vegetable once they've served their purpose, and 'refresh' the stew with new vegetables towards the end of the cooking time. This will give you the nutrition, colour, and texture you crave).

Seriously: develop a recipe for spaghetti bolognese and 'make it your own'. Make something so personal and unique to you that your friends will beg for the recipe and it will become a family heirloom passed down through generations. Your son's new wife will ask for the recipe, and attempt to make it, when you and your husband come to visit. And it won't be as good, according to your son, but then his new bride will find her own special recipe, and on it will go. I think what I'm saying is, don't be bullied into so-called 'authentic' or 'traditional' recipes unless it is really important to you to be authentic or traditional. Finding your own culinary voice is just as important, and ultimately more rewarding.