Pasta Database

Emilia-Romagna · meat · chunky

Best pasta for ragu alla bolognese

A slow-cooked minced beef and pork sauce with soffritto, wine, milk, and a little tomato. Tagliatelle, never spaghetti, in Bologna.

Region
Emilia-Romagna
Base
Meat
Texture
Chunky
Shapes that hold it
4
Ragu alla bolognese, served on pasta

What it asks of a shape

Ragu alla bolognese is a chunky meat-based sauce. It wants a ribbon, with the flat surface a rich sauce needs, a wide shape with mass, to stand up to a heavy sauce, and an egg dough, soft and rich, the northern match for butter and cream. The ranking below scores every profiled shape on those traits, then the shape's own sauce notes break the ties.

What it is

Place of origin
Bologna, Emilia-Romagna
Also called
Ragù alla bolognese or
Type
Ragù

Bolognese sauce, known in Italian as ragù alla bolognese or ragù bolognese, is the main variety of ragù in Italian cuisine, typical of the city of Bologna.

4 shapes that hold it

Tagliatelle, uncooked, on linen

Tagliatelle

Ribbons · Emilia-Romagna

A wide porous egg ribbon holds a meat ragu on its surface and absorbs the fat, which is why Bologna refuses spaghetti for the same sauce.

Garganelli, uncooked, on linen

Garganelli

Tubes · Emilia-Romagna

Egg dough, ridges, and a bore, so they absorb and hold a rich sauce: ragu, cream with peas and ham, a butter and prosciutto dressing.

Lasagne, uncooked, on linen

Lasagne

Sheets · Emilia-Romagna

A sheet is a layer.

Pappardelle, uncooked, on linen

Pappardelle

Ribbons · Tuscany

The broadest face of any ribbon, so it carries the heaviest sauces: wild boar, hare, duck, a mushroom sauce with body, a slow beef ragu.

Sources

  • The ranking and the sauce notes are our editorial judgement, from the traits in each shape record. See the method.
  • Bolognese sauce, Wikipedia (summary, ingredients, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata Q1162965.