Broths, ragù and sauces

Ragù alla Romagnola

Ingredients [for 4 people]
400 g lean minced beef
150 g chicken livers
50 g pancetta
500 g fresh tomatoes or tomato sauce
meat broth
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
salt and pepper
nutmeg
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Method
Finely chop the vegetables and fry gently in the extra virgin olive oil. Once golden, add the pancetta and the chicken livers (cut into small pieces), followed by the meat; brown for a further 5 minutes, then add the tomato and the spices. The ragù should cook slowly, for about 1½ hours, with the pan uncovered; you will need to add meat broth from time to time to stop the ingredients sticking to the bottom of the pan. Take care not to overdo the salt, pepper and spices, as the ingredients are already very flavoursome.
In Romagna, ragù is served over a good plate of steaming tagliatelle, though strozzapreti and ravioli are also welcome.

Salsa di pomodoro alla romagnola

Tagliatelle with salsa di pomodoro alla romagnola is the lighter, summer alternative to the classic tagliatelle al ragù. The sauce is also excellent with any type of pasta.

Ingredients
500 g ripe tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
2 shallots
½ glass of extra virgin olive oil
parsley
salt and pepper

Method
Blanch the tomatoes briefly, remove the skin and seeds, and cut into small pieces. Fry the garlic gently in half a glass of oil (remove it as soon as it turns golden), along with the finely chopped shallot and the parsley. Then add the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cover the pan and cook for an hour. To finish the sauce, pass it through a sieve, a food mill with a medium disc, or a blender.

Béchamel

This sauce is used in many Italian regions, and very widely in Romagna, to bind baked pasta dishes and timbales of all kinds. Making it at home makes it tastier and definitely more genuine: the recipe takes little time and the flavour is completely different.

Ingredients
½ litre of milk
50 g butter
30 g flour
nutmeg
salt and pepper

Method
In a heavy-bottomed pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour, mixing vigorously; add salt, pepper and nutmeg (take care with the amount of nutmeg, as it can make the sauce quite spicy). A little at a time, add the warm milk, stirring constantly to prevent lumps forming. It will take about ten minutes on the heat and the béchamel will be ready.

Meat broth

Meat broth in Romagna is a serious matter. Perhaps because it is served with cappelletti, which here are an institution, as well as being a "bone of contention" over the filling, which can be meat, cheese, or a mixture of the two.
To get a good broth, the choice of beef is essential (neither too lean nor too fatty), and it is also necessary to use a piece of bone. In Romagna, it is also traditional to add a piece of chicken or capon.

Ingredients
1 kg mixed meat (beef, capon or chicken)
1 bone for the broth
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
2 tomatoes
cloves
coarse salt
3 litres of fresh water

Method
Put all the ingredients into a large pot, taking care to stud the onion with the cloves. The broth should simmer for at least 3 hours in a normal pot, or for 35 to 40 minutes in a pressure cooker. In the second case, the result is a less fragrant broth, but not very different from the one made in the traditional pot.