Meat Sauce for Pasta: Ragu di Carne

Meat Sauce for Pasta: Ragu di Carne
© Dopplinger | Falstaff

Meat Sauce for Pasta: Ragu di Carne

The classic meat sauce for Piedmontese Tajarín made from a mixture of minced veal (beef) and pork. Equally good with rabbit, lamb or Italian sausage.

Willi Klinger

Ingredients (4 servings)
3-4 tablespoon(s) olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
300 g mixed minced meat (pork and beef)
1 large carrot, finely chopped
2-3 handful garlic, finely chopped
1 large twigs fresh rosemary, needles rubbed and finely chopped
400 g peeled canned tomatoes
salt
black pepper, freshly ground
  • In a saucepan, sauté the onions in the olive oil over medium heat. Add the mince, break it up well and fry, stirring constantly until it is lightly browned.
  • Mix in the carrot, garlic, rosemary and the chopped tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.
  • Reduce the heat so that the meat does not become dry and simmer, half covered, for 1 hour. The ragù should be dense and not watery.
  • Season again to taste. This ragù tastes best with Tajarin, the fine, hand-cut tagliolini with up to 40 egg yolks per kilo of flour.
  • You can also use fusilli, penne, rigatoni or spaghetti. It is important to toss the pasta well in the pan with the ragù before serving, because if you first put the pasta on the plate and the ragù on top, you will have a hard time mixing it.
    The Italian trattoria chefs use wok-like aluminium pans for this purpose, with which the pasta can be easily "pushed".
  • A bit of olive oil on the arranged pasta looks good, grated parmesan can be served separately. If you are a purist, leave out the cheese.

Tip:

You can freeze the cooled ragù in portions for later use. 

Willi Klinger
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