So THAT's Why Restaurant Ragu Is So Much Better

You might already know that some Italians add baking soda as well as sugar to tomato sauces to help reduce acidity. 

But acidity isn’t the only reason my homemade pasta sauce tastes a little... lacklustre. I always wish my ragu was a little thicker, smoother, glossier, and richer. 

Thankfully, chef Jack Croft, a co-owner of London restaurant Fallow, has shared some pro-level tips. 

“This isn’t the authentic way or the correct way... this is the chef way,” he explained on YouTube. 

How do chefs make ragu? 

Chef Croft began by placing some pancetta in the pan before adding a sofrito of carrots, onions, and celery. 

It’s not vital to get the pancetta super brown, he added; it’s more about that smoky fat flavour. 

He added a pinch of salt in this sautee stage, as he believes in layering seasonings throughout the dish (it can also help onions to cook faster). 

This should create a sweet, caramelised base for the sauce. 

Once softened but not browned (about 10 minutes in), grate some garlic into the veggies, let it cook for a minute or so, remove the sofrito, crank the heat up to high, and then add your mince. Chef Croft adds pork belly at this point, too. 

Crucially, he waits for a “dark brown caramelisation” of the meat, which he continually breaks up, for maximum flavour. 

Only once the water has begun to evaporate and the meat has begun to colour does he turn the heat down to low and slowly caramelise the mince, which he says imparts “80% of the flavour” of your ragu. 

He also caramelises his tomato puree by letting it cook with the meat for a minute or so and slowly built his sauce with wine, pasatta, bay leaves, nutmeg, Parmesan, and stock. He finished the sauce in the oven.

Any other tips? 

Yes. Chef Croft’s tips reminded me a little of Nigella Lawson’s Lasagne of Love recipe, which I’ve tried and loved (she also begins her recipe with bacon soffritto and bakes her Bolognese in the oven, though she doesn’t remove the veggies from the pan at the start of the recipe). 

Like her, Chef Croft adds milk to his ragu, though he doesn’t mix it with tomato puree as Nigella did.

Calling it his “favourite step,” he explained he’d seen the tip from both Massimo Bottura and Marco Pierre-White. He added it after the meat had cooked “to soften the meat fibres”.