Spaghetti bolognese is a global comfort food, yet in Bologna the dish as most of the world knows it is dismissed as something that does not exist. This episode explains what true ragù alla bolognese is: a slow-cooked meat sauce built on a gently sweated soffritto, beef or veal with pork or pancetta, white wine, milk, and only a little tomato paste.

We trace the sauce from the French ragoût to a late-18th-century recipe by Alberto Alvisi, cook to the future Pope Pius VII, and on to Pellegrino Artusi’s 1891 tomato-free version. We also cover the recipe registered with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce, a 2010 worldwide chef event, and a 1917 cookbook that paired the sauce with spaghetti.

• Why milk and white wine, not a pot of crushed tomatoes, give the real ragù its character
• Why smooth spaghetti is a poor match for a heavy meat sauce, and why tagliatelle or tube pasta works better
• How the Italian Academy of Cuisine registered the recipe in 1982 and updated it in 2023
• How news outlets illustrated the 2010 authenticity event with photos of spaghetti in red sauce
• How southern Italian immigrants, cheap American beef, and wartime shortages created the global version