h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Spaghetti Bolognese - A1091963
Author: I Love Queen - U232647

I just think people should have a right to know that I like spaghetti bolognese!

Hiya 'I Love Queen'!

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spelugx

Or give your recipe for the ultimate Spag Bol - The herbs you use, the type of tomatoes - I go for Beefsteak - Is it acceptable to add things like baked beans to the mix. How much onion, garlic, fresh oregano against dried.

Did you know... if you go to any restaurant in Italy - probably excluding the ones that aim specifically at tourists - and ask for spaghetti bolognese, they'll look at you funny and not know what you're talking about.

It's only known as spag bol outside Italy - it's a tourist invention. The dish itself does exist in Italy - it's just known as spaghetti all ragu.

Or at least, that's what my girlfriend tells me, and she is Italian, after all.

Spaghetti *alla* ragu, sorry.

Frankly, I've never heard of the dish myself. Spaghetti, yes. And Ragu is the brand name of one of kinds of spaghetti sauces you can buy here in the US. But I've never heard of Spaghetti Bolognese. It's a big world, it is.

Too right Mikey...

Some of us barbaric colonials have never heard of the thing.

Since the Guide aspires to a world-wide audience, perhaps a little help here?


- Jimi X

Well, I found these recipes:

http://pasta.allrecipes.com/az/spgbl.asp
http://www.epicurious.com/run/recipe/view?id=107226
http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/europe/italian/01/rec0131.html

And I'm not entirely sure how this is all that different from what Jimi and I know as just plain old spaghetti. There are things in this recipe that I don't put into spaghetti sauce, but they're all things I know other people use in their spaghetti sauces (like wine, or beef broth, etc.). Myself, I'm a plain jane -- tomatoes, meat, chopped veggies, and a few assorted spices.

Maybe it's like a fancier spaghetti? Or one heavier on the meat?

I think that's the difference. If someone said just 'spaghetti' to me, I would assume they were taking about just the shape of the pasta, not about a whole dish in itself.

spelugx

Spaghetti is a type of long thin pasta. Spaghetti Bolognese is spaghetti with a meat and tomato sauce.

Here in the states both terms usually mean the same thing...

And if you ask mom "What's for dinner?", and she says "Spaghetti", you know she's talking about the kind with the tomato and meat sauce, and not planning on just the plain pasta. It's pretty rare in the US to see spaghetti noodles used for other kinds of pasta dishes, but when they are, it will be specified in the title -- spaghetti with alfredo sauce, etc. The tomato and meat sauce is referred to in the US as "spaghetti sauce" when you buy it a premade jar at the store or you're making it at home (although there are definitely people who prefer their spaghetti sauces sans meat -- personally, I just consider that 'red sauce' and not real 'spaghetti sauce').

If someone is referring to the pasta, often as not they will say 'spaghetti noodles' or 'spaghetti pasta', whereas just 'spaghetti' more often refers to the whole dish.

Now you see Jimi's and my confusion....

I think I understand now... what British people tend to think of as Spaghetti Bolognese is what you'd call Spaghetti - with Spaghetti Sauce. Ragu's also a brand name for a sauce you can buy in the UK.

My girlfriend just finds it ironic that when British people eat Spaghetti Bolognese they think they're eating something Italian, when in fact it doesn't exist in Italy.

All that aside, it doesn't seem that this one's EG-bound. What d'you think about moving back to Entry?

I'd second that.


Mikey