Bolognese sauce (ragù bolognese in Italian) is a meat-based sauce for pasta originating in Bologna, Italy. Bolognese sauce is sometimes taken to be a tomato sauce, but authentic recipes have only a small amount of tomato. The traditional recipe, registered in 1982 by the Bolognese delegation of Accademia Italiana della Cucina, confines the ingredients to beef, pancetta, onions, carrots, celery, tomato paste, meat broth, white wine and milk or cream. However, different recipes, even in the Bolognese tradition, make use of chopped pork or pork sausage, while chicken or goose liver may be added along with the beef or veal for special occasions, and today many use both butter and olive oil for cooking the Soffritto of small amounts of celery, carrot and onion.

Yesterday I was at Borgo d’Aneto and where else in Rotterdam can you eat a pasta dish with Bolognese sauce like this? It’s  a rhetorical question of course… Go find out for yourself! Farid Zaman, the chef at Borgo d’Aneto was trained by the one of the best Italian chefs in Rotterdam and this has definitely borne fruit. His Bolognese sauce can be considered as one of the most delicious pasta sauces of the Lowlands. After I descended from cloud #9, I could define celery, carrot and onion in the red sauce, richly filled with beef.

If I could have Penne Bolognese at Borgo d’Aneto every Tuesday for the rest of my life, I’d be completely happy one day a week until I die…

At home, we love to cook, but this sauce is an example of slow cooking, to ensure the quality and taste, which in these hectic times is difficult to match at home. It’s a shame, but in general we simply don’t have time to cook like this… Therefore I would love to recommend Borgo d’Aneto to everyone who loves good food, and good wines. Although we had the red house wine yesterday, I can recommend you ask for the Puglia. Faouzi Chihabi, one of the owners, will know what you mean if you ask for it and tell him that it’s The Hotstepper’s favourite.

http://www.borgodaneto.nl