Edited by Rachel Heung
You know the famous spaghetti bolognese, the “traditional pasta” from Italy? The Italian dish most famous with foreigners around the world and in vast and majorly different restaurants across the world. Yes, the pasta that everyone thinks of once they hear the word “spaghetti” or “italian food”. Well, that’s a lie. Spaghetti bolognese doesn’t and shouldn’t exist according to the mayor of Bologna, Italy. Even though the dish is supposed to be traditional and originated from Italy, the mayor claims that it is fake news. The meat sauce Italians eat is actually supposedly called ragú, and is rarely served with spaghetti at all.
Initially ragú sauce was a stew that was meant to be eaten as the main course, but then it started being eaten on toasted bread instead. These early ragú dishes didn't contain tomatoes since they didn't arrive in Europe from the New World until the 1500s. It is thought that the real original recipe for the bolognese is from the 1700s, and Alberto Alvisi is the chef that cooked the first real tomato-based ragú and served it with macaroni pasta.
If you go to Italy, you normally wouldn’t find spaghetti bolognese anywhere in a restaurant's menus at all. You can only eat it abroad or at restaurants specifically with tourists. Bolognese is a dish that seems to create confusion outside of Italy, as when a famous dish and recipe was the subject of a heated controversy of using “white” bolognese sauce, it had made a lot of Italians enraged. They were quick to defend the right way to cook the bolognese dish, and it wasn’t the “original” version that the people thought was either. It was to prepare it as the Ragù alla Bolognese – with tomatoes as one of the main ingredients of course, it is only served with tagliatelle, tortellini or gnocchi, and never with spaghetti, as the thicker spaghetti can hold the chunky sauce better than the flimsy spaghetti.
But of course, if you don’t agree with the Italians on the idea of not eating bolognese on spaghetti, you always just stick to the “traditional” spaghetti bolognese that you can eat outside of Italy. As no matter which type of pasta is paired with bolognese, it would still always taste amazing!
References
Cookist. (n.d.). Spaghetti Bolognese: the traditional pasta recipe from Italy continua su:
https://www.cookist.com/spaghetti-bolognese/ https://www.cookist.com/.
https://www.cookist.com/spaghetti-bolognese/
Hosie, R. (2019, March 12). The mayor of Bologna, Italy, says spaghetti bolognese does not
exist. https://www.insider.com/spaghetti-bolognese-does-not-exist-says-mayor-of-
bologna-italy-2019-3#:~:text=Spaghetti%20bolognese%20does%20not%20exist%2C
%20according%20to%20the%20mayor%20of,is%20rarely%20served%20with%20
spaghetti.
SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE IT DOESN'T EXIST IN ITALY…. (n.d.). https://newsfood.com/
spaghetti-bolognese-it-doesnt-exist-in-italy/
Why you won't find spaghetti bolognese in Italy. (2016, September 14). The Local.
https://www.thelocal.it/20160914/the-truth-about-spaghetti-bolognese-ragu-pasta/
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