To an Italian, pasta al ragu is pasta with sauce. The meaning of the word 'ragu' derives from the French ragout which means to cook meat, fish or vegetables in liquid over a low heat for a prolonged period of time so it's a sort of stew. In Italian, ragu simply implies meat rather than fish or vegetables otherwise it would state ragu di pesce or ragu di verdure.

In Naples in the south of Italy, the meat is often cooked as a whole piece; the sauce is used to dress the pasta and the meat is served as a second course. Ragu from the city of Bologna in northern Italy is different; bolognese is made with ground meat and can be made in 2-3 hours whereas ragu takes around 6 hours.

Bolognese isn't vegan and doesn't contain garlic, oregano, vinegar (even if it's red wine) or sugar and defo doesn't contain mushrooms nor is it served on a bed of courgetti or heaven forbid wholewheat or pea and red lentil pasta.

Bolognese is made from ground meat and a soffritto of finely chopped carrots, onions and celery along with tomatoes, salt, pepper and a splash of full flat milk to cut through the acidity of the tomatoes and that's it.

This recipe is for spag bog and has little resemblance to bolognese. The origin is unsure ? American or English but it sure as heck isn't Italian. My recipe also has a chequered past, starting from page 148 in my first cookbook, The St Michael All Colour Cookery Book by Jeni Wright, 1976 and has been updated many times over the last 40+ years.