Antonio, Antonio...little did you know you'd cause quite a commotion when you said the classic Italian favourite, spaghetti bolognese, is not Italian at all. Speaking at this year's Cheltenham Literature Festival, Carluccio slammed the use of spaghetti with the sauce that originated from Bologna, northern Italy. In fact, the sauce itself, as served in many a humble Italian restaurant in Britain, hardly resembles the original simple recipe of olive oil, onions, tomatoes, pork and beef mince and red wine. Tagliatelle should be the pasta of choice, the dish topped off with a sprinkling of parmesan.
In Britain, we throw in all manner of extras, aided and abetted by our culinary gods like Delia Smith. It seems the longer the list of ingredients, the more we believe the dish will turn out sublime. Tom Kerridge must surely win an award for suggesting we add star anise, cloves, pancetta, garlic, oregano, Demerara sugar, bay leaves, mushrooms, sage..I gave up trying that recipe a long while ago, it was too exhausting just doing the shopping.
So, simple is best, and so say all of us. Maybe Grandpa Antonio knows his onions (and bolognese sauce), single-handedly flying the flag for traditional Italian fare, and maybe someone ought to tell fellow Italian Gennaro Contaldo that he's likely to be in the doghouse for including celery and carrot in his version?