Three unusual, authentic ragù recipes, including a summer special

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To accompany this week’s pasta-themed issue of FT Weekend Magazine, three chefs share their favourite offbeat ragù recipes.

Liar’s ragù

Serves six

This is the favourite ragù of Florence-based cookbook author Emiko Davies and comes from the menu of Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda, Tuscany. Liar’s ragù (sugo bugiardo) is so called because it’s bulked up with vegetables and cheap sausages, rather than slow-cooked meat. In a similar vein she also recommends sugo finto, “fake sauce”, which is made entirely of vegetables, and the equally meat-free pollo scappato, “escaped chicken”.

1. Prepare a soffritto by placing the onion, carrot and celery with the olive oil in a wide pan. Add a good pinch of salt and bring to a medium heat and let them cook gently until the onion is soft but not browning.

2. Add the rigatino and the sausage meat, crumbled, and cook, allowing the rigatino and pork to brown slightly.

3. Pour over the glass of wine, and add the tomatoes (and their juice too), with another pinch of salt and some pepper. Use your wooden spoon or a pair of kitchen scissors to break up the tomatoes into chunks for this chunky style of ragù.

4. Bring the sugo to a gentle simmer over low-medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes. It should be a thick, luscious, chunky sauce, not too watery and not too dry — you can add a splash of water if it needs it, or turn it lower if the liquid is disappearing too quickly. Off the heat, stir through some parsley at the last moment.

5. Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water (this ragù goes well with a ribbon pasta like pappardelle or fettuccine) and toss through the ragù. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

Courtyard ragù

Serves six

This unusual ragù is named for the three meats a smallholder might have to hand. It comes from the Sunday lunch menu at Ida’s in north-west London, where owners Simonetta and Avi also serve a Ragù Genovese that calls for a kilo of onions and was very popular with FT readers when we ran the recipe back in January.

1. Chop all the meat into 1cm cubes.

2. Pour the oil into a large, high-sided frying pan or casserole dish.

3. Stir-fry the cubed meat at a high heat to seal, ensuring that it covers no more than two-thirds of the pan’s surface. (Do in two lots if necessary, as the meat will release liquid and boil rather than fry if the pan is too crowded.)

4. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and reserve, keeping the fat and cooking juices in the pan.

5. Melt the butter in the pan on low heat.

6. Add the diced vegetables, plus the bay leaves and sauté for about five minutes until softened.

7. Add the reserved meats, two pinches of salt and six grinds of pepper and stir well.

8. After cooking for about 10 minutes at a medium heat, add the white wine, allow to evaporate for around three minutes, then add in the stock and the passata.

9. Mix again, cover, and cook for around two hours on a very low heat, using a diffuser if you have one.

10. Check occasionally that it is not sticking to the bottom, adding a splash of boiling water if it seems dry. Season with more salt and pepper as required. Serve with either fresh tagliatelle, pappardelle or gnocchi, or else dried pasta like paccheri or rigatoni, with a handful of cheese per person.

Summer ragù

Serves four, generously

This recipe comes from Jessica Filbey, formerly of the River Cafe and now head chef at Canteen, one of London’s new wave of fresh pasta restaurants. The light, herby sauce makes it a particularly useful recipe in the warmer months, and is best made the day before.

1. Put the red onion, celery heart, fennel bulb and pancetta into a heavy based pan with a good glug of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and cook on a medium heat until soft (about 12 minutes), stirring with a wooden spoon.

2. Add the garlic, herbs and lemon peel for a further two minutes.

3. Take the fragrant soffritto out of the pan, add another glug of olive oil to the pan, turn up the heat and add the veal mince, with another pinch of salt and pepper, frying and stirring the meat until browned on all sides.

4. Once this is done, add your soffritto back into the pan with the veal, add the wine and let it bubble for two minutes before adding the milk, followed by another layer of seasoning and the bay leaves.

5. Bring up to a simmer and put a lid on it, and bake in the oven on 150C for two hours, stirring from time to time and adding a little more wine or milk if it seems dry. Take out the oven and season to taste.

6. Cook the pasta in well-salted, fast-boiling water until just al dente, drain, reserving a little of the pasta water.

7. Toss the pasta through the sauce with a good knob of butter, and add a little pasta water to loosen and emulsify the sauce with the pasta. Finish with a drizzle of good olive oil and a generous grating of parmesan.

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