Tagliatelle · First course
Tagliatelle al ragù: the traditional Romagna recipe
The Sunday dish, the way our grandmother made it
If one dish tells the story of Romagna, it is Sunday tagliatelle al ragù. The yellow sheet rolled out on a wooden board, the smell of ragù filling the house from the morning, the ribbons cut by hand with a big knife: this is the recipe people learned to cook with, and the one that in many families is still made rather than bought.
Here is our version: one egg per 100 grams of flour, ribbons cut wide the way Romagna wants them, and a beef and pork ragù that simmers gently for three hours. You need no special equipment, just a board, a rolling pin and a free afternoon.
Why the width matters
In Romagna the tagliatella is wider than its Bolognese sister: 7 to 8 millimetres raw against the 6 to 7 of the Emilian rule. This is not pedantry. A wider ribbon holds a thick ragù better and gives you that sensation of pasta you can actually feel, soft but with a hint of resistance. If you want to go deeper, the guide to pasta thickness by shape lists the measurements for every cut.
The ragù: few rules, plenty of patience
The secret is not in the ingredients but in the timing. The soffritto must soften without colouring, the meat must genuinely brown rather than boil in its own liquid, and the final cooking should be so gentle that the ragù barely smiles, with the odd bubble breaking the surface. Three hours sounds like a lot, but the active work is twenty minutes: the pot does the rest.
Serving it properly
Tagliatelle go straight from the water into the ragù pan with tongs, never through a colander: the water they carry with them is what binds the sauce. A quick toss over the heat, Parmesan grated at the last moment, and to the table at once, because fresh pasta waits for nobody.
Ingredients
For the pasta
For the ragù
Tick the ingredients as you go. Amounts adapt to the number of servings.
Weigh the eggs, find the flour
Flour type the weight
Cut shapes: weight of the eggs × 1.66, the classic sfoglia formula. The rule is in the guide to the basic dough.
Method
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The soffritto
Finely chop the onion, carrot and celery. Warm the oil and butter in a heavy pan and let the vegetables soften over gentle heat for 10 minutes, without letting them colour: they should turn soft and sweet.
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The meat
Turn up the heat, add the chopped pancetta and then the minced beef. Brown it, stirring and breaking it up with the spoon, until the meat has given up all its water and starts to sizzle and catch on the bottom: that is where the flavour is born.
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Wine and tomato
Pour in the wine and let it evaporate. Add the passata. Season lightly, add pepper and bring to a gentle simmer.
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The slow cooking
Turn the heat right down, cover leaving a gap and cook for at least two and a half hours, stirring now and then. The ragù is ready when it is thick and glossy and the fat just rises to the surface.
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The pasta
Make a well of flour on the board, break the eggs into the middle and beat them with a fork, drawing in the flour a little at a time. Knead with the heel of your hand for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Wrap in cling film and rest for 30 minutes.
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Rolling and cutting
Roll the sheet out with a rolling pin until you can see the grain of the wood through it, about 1 mm. Let it dry for at least 10 minutes, then roll it loosely on itself and cut ribbons 7 to 8 mm wide. Open the nests with your fingers and dust with flour.
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Cooking and dressing
Drop the tagliatelle into plenty of boiling salted water: two to three minutes is enough. Lift them straight into the warm ragù with tongs, toss for a moment with a ladle of pasta water and serve with Parmesan.
Alternative method: with the pasta machine If you roll the sheet with rollers
With the rollers the sfoglia comes out smooth and even: it holds the ragù a little less well than one pulled with the rolling pin, but the dish is still good. Only the rolling changes, the rest of the recipe is the same.
- Divide the rested dough into four pieces and keep the ones you are not working on covered, otherwise they dry out.
- Pass the first piece through the widest setting, fold the rectangle in three and pass it again: repeat four or five times, turning it ninety degrees each time. This is what gives the sfoglia its elasticity.
- Then go down one setting at a time, without folding any more, as far as the sixth or seventh out of nine: about a millimetre. Do not skip settings, the sfoglia would tear.
- Lay the strips out on the floured board and let them dry for ten minutes, until the surface is no longer sticky.
- Cut them with the wide roller on the machine, or roll the strip up and cut ribbons of 7 to 8 mm with a knife, the way we do. Open the nests and dust them with semola, the durum wheat semolina.
The rolling pin remains our choice: the reason is in the guide to rolling the sfoglia by hand.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make tagliatelle with a pasta machine?
Yes, and the roller method is set out step by step just above: stop at the sixth or seventh setting out of nine rather than the last, because Romagna tagliatelle want a little body. The rolling pin remains our choice because it leaves the surface rough, so it holds the sauce better.
How long does fresh tagliatelle keep?
Raw, as long as they have been dried well and dusted with a few pinches of flour, in the fridge under a tea towel for one or two days. In the freezer, arranged in nests on a tray and then bagged, for up to two months: cook them straight from frozen and add a minute.
Is Romagna ragù different from Bolognese ragù?
They are close cousins. The Romagna version often uses more tomato, sometimes sausage instead of pancetta, and rarely milk. But every family has its own version and none of them is wrong.
Keep kneading
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