Meat-based and ragu recipes

Ragu, to me at least, sounds like an Indian word. It is actually an Italian term that refers to meat sauce normally served with pasta. The term is derived from the French word Ragout, which is a main-dish stew.

A ragu is usually made by adding meat - usually minced meat - to a mixture of partially cooked, chopped vegetables such as onions, celery, carrots, etc and then simmering for a long time.

Ragu is therefore a general term that refers to pasta with meat-based sauce. Probably the most famous of ragu recipes is bolognaise sauce also known as Ragu Bolognese or Ragu alla Bolognese.

Of course, there are other different styles of meat sauce pasta sauces, such as Neapolitan ragu (or Ragu alla Napoletana) and Ragù alla Barese, which is sometimes prepared with horse meat – and which I will not be featuring on this website because I don't eat horses!

It means there are different styles of Ragu. But there is actually no such thing as a single "Ragu recipe".

I have seen pasta cookbooks that list a Pasta Bolognese recipe as well as a recipe for Pasta Ragu. But when you look at the two recipes, they are essentially the same, with, at most, a slight variation in the ingredients.

Such separate listings are actually a good indication that the pasta cookbook is not authentic Italian, but probably American. There is nothing wrong with this per se. After all, many recipes on this website are not authentic Italian either. However, the authentic Italian versions of many common pasta recipes, including ragu recipes, tend to be more delicious.

For the purpose of indexing here, all types of meat sauce and meat-based pasta recipes are included below. They include, for example, a Chinese meat-sauce recipe that bears similarity to Ragu Bolognese, as well as recipes using preserved meats such as sausages, salami, pancetta (salt-cured pork belly) and bacon (smoked pork belly).

But although chicken is also meat, most cookbooks list chicken pasta dishes separately from other meat-based pasta dishes. So they are listed separately on this website as well.

Italian / Western meat-based pasta
	Bolognese sauce (stewed)
	Bolognese sauce (baked)
	Bacon with ricotta
	Carbonara (pancetta / bacon)
Asian-style meat-based pasta
	Chinese meat sauce