It’s not a red sauce, it is certainly supposed to be focused on the meat, but it’s not necessarily supposed to be finished with cream. Tomato is a newer addition, of course, being a New World fruit, but that doesn’t make it any less “authentic.”
Also, read more here. That’s as “authentic” as you’re going to get.
Plus, here is a very detailed description of bolognese on a message board by an food historian (who is of Italian extraction) that goes into all the ins and outs of bolognese, as well as this follow-up post with a few more pointers and some pictures. (Also, note the amount of ragú in his plated dish.)
My favorite recent restaurant review is this one for the New York restaurant Ago. Now, the owners include the chef Agostino Sciandri and the actor Robert DeNiro. They already owned a highly rated restaurant of the same name in Los Angeles. And DeNiro owns several other highly rated restaurants with other people. My point being that they are not amateurs.
Anyhow, the review I linked to starts with the bartender spilling wine all over a member of the reviewer’s dining party. Then, they wait 52 minutes past their reservation time to be seated at a table. And then, after a rack of lamb is ordered, they’re served a veal chop (although the server describes it as “the special rack-of-lamb veal chop”). I’d love to have been in the room when the owners read the review.
Well, in my opinion anyone that were to declare pretty much any traditional recipe as the one would almost certainly be full of it. Traditional cooking is almost always best prepared at home, and usually each home has its own traditions and recipes. I doubt any two mammas cook Bolognesa the same way.
No, I am not at all saying there is one authentic recipe, hence my quotes around “authentic.” However, there is an official recipe, as designated by the Bolognese delegation of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, which is about as close as you can possibly get to an agreement on what bolognese is and isn’t. Of course traditional cooking varies. But there are basic guidelines under which a recipe lives, before it becomes another recipe and no longer ragú alla bolognese. To quote the food historian in the second thread I linked to:
I am not saying lukeinva’s recipe is wrong. Not at all. It sounds like a bolognese to me. I was actually objecting to the “supposed to” part of his post saying that it’s supposed to have veal and pork and be finished with cream, which is not necessarily true, and is in fact not part of the “official” ragu alla Bolognese recipe as above. A standard bolognese is basically modeled after the recipe listed. It may have cream, it may not. It may have some finely chopped liver, it may not. Milk may or may not be used. White wine is generally preferred, although red will do. Garlic is generally absent (I’ve actually never seen an Italian recipe for Bolognese with garlic. Onions only.) It generally does not contain herbs, fresh or dried. Whatever bolognese is, lukeinva and I agree that it is not just any old tomato-based meat sauce, but rather a specific meat sauce that may or may not contain some tomato product in it, but meat is the centerpiece.
Thomas Keller talks about sitting there where all those great people had sat before him, but, hell, I’d go there just to sit in a restaurant that Thomas Keller sat in.
Also, in the letters to the editor section of a subsequent issue of Vanity Fair, Robert Wagner and Jill St. John trash that review and claim they’ve enjoyed the restaurant, its staff and fare for over 50 years and go there every chance they get.
But to be fair, it’s entirely possible that wealthy, gorgeous celebrities and world-famous chefs get to experience the place in a somewhat different manner than the hoi polloi.
My post wasn’t meant to be the recipe for Bolognese, just the usual ingredients for Bolognese that are not usually in a basic tomato sauce.
Btw, the pancetta isn’t really an ingredient as it is normally removed after being rendered. The fat remains for cooking the mirapoix but the spent pancetta would be removed. In my kitchen anyway.
Ah, yes. You’ll get no arguments from me, although I tend to keep the pancetta in. I think we both agree that while “bolognese” may have become a sort of synonym for a almost any type of ground or finely diced meat sauce in English, in the context of Italian cuisine or at an Italian restaurant trying to remain true to the style, it’s a more specific type of meat sauce, which is different than other types of ragú. Ground meat swimming in tomato sauce with lots of herbs and spices and garlic in it is good, but it’s not ragú alla bolognese.
