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Italian or British? Writer solves riddle of spaghetti bolognese

theguardian.com

21–30 of 41 posts

Re: Italian or British? Writer solves riddle of spaghetti bolognese

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of really old recipes, say, those dating to the roman era or even only the renaissance, are very unpalatable for modern tastes.

Do you know of any good repository of (as far as we know) accurate recipes from that sort of time? I'd love to be able to cook a Roman dinner one night or something.

Here's a video series of foods from the 1700s - which is a few hundred years after what you're talking about, but still interesting: [Jas. Townsend](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr2d4As312LulcajAkKJYw)

Re: Italian or British? Writer solves riddle of spaghetti bolognese

#23
post #9

Lol, everybody in Italy has had "spaghetti bolognese". We call them "spaghetti al ragù" and learn the name "spaghetti bolognese" the first time we are exposed to international gastronomy, possibly the first vacation abroad. The issue here is about spaghetti not being the proper kind of pasta for the "ragù" sauce, tagliatelle is the traditional one. Ok, noted, but ragù is still a common sauce for spaghetti and maccaro…

Haha yep. This was a bit of a funny side joke in a Top Gear special, when they went through the Italy.

Re: Italian or British? Writer solves riddle of spaghetti bolognese

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of really old recipes, say, those dating to the roman era or even only the renaissance, are very unpalatable for modern tastes.

Do you know of any good repository of (as far as we know) accurate recipes from that sort of time? I'd love to be able to cook a Roman dinner one night or something.

The Apicius Cookbook

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apicius

(Pdf) http://kitchenproject.com/history/apicius/Apicius.pdf

Re: Italian or British? Writer solves riddle of spaghetti bolognese

#27

I've always found it interesting how native American foods (tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, chilis, corn, strawberry, pineapple, etc.) have been integrated into "traditional" cuisines around the world. Italian spaghetti sauce or Thai peanut sauce, etc. have only been available for a few hundred years max... Still a lot, but some other traditions go back millennia.

A lot of really old recipes, say, those dating to the roman era or even only the renaissance, are very unpalatable for modern tastes.

[deleted]

Re: Italian or British? Writer solves riddle of spaghetti bolognese

#28
post #9

Lol, everybody in Italy has had "spaghetti bolognese". We call them "spaghetti al ragù" and learn the name "spaghetti bolognese" the first time we are exposed to international gastronomy, possibly the first vacation abroad. The issue here is about spaghetti not being the proper kind of pasta for the "ragù" sauce, tagliatelle is the traditional one. Ok, noted, but ragù is still a common sauce for spaghetti and maccaro…

It's almost like you didn't read the article at all...

Re: Italian or British? Writer solves riddle of spaghetti bolognese

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of really old recipes, say, those dating to the roman era or even only the renaissance, are very unpalatable for modern tastes.

Do you know of any good repository of (as far as we know) accurate recipes from that sort of time? I'd love to be able to cook a Roman dinner one night or something.

Having spent very little time in the Roman Empire I can't vouch for its authenticity, but http://www.passthegarum.co.uk/ looks like an interesting source of recipes.

Re: Italian or British? Writer solves riddle of spaghetti bolognese

#30

I've always found it interesting how native American foods (tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, chilis, corn, strawberry, pineapple, etc.) have been integrated into "traditional" cuisines around the world. Italian spaghetti sauce or Thai peanut sauce, etc. have only been available for a few hundred years max... Still a lot, but some other traditions go back millennia.

Indeed. And it goes both ways, of course. There are, for instance, many (delicious) traditional Mexican dishes that would have been impossible prior to contact from Europeans.
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