Italian pasta chef explains why you're probably making Bolognese wrong

Pasta is a popular and versatile food - with spaghetti Bolognese a particular favourite for many people. The rich meaty Bolognese sauce is not only tasty, but it's easy enough to make at home and there are plenty of ways to vary the recipe.

However, an Italian pasta chef has explained some common mistakes Brits make when cooking the dish themselves. She insists the choice of pasta is crucial - and there are some strict no-nos when it comes to the sauce ingredients, too.

Head pasta chef at Pasta Evangelists in London, Roberta d'Elia, told The Mirror: "You might not know but in Italy we have around 250 to 300 different shapes of pasta. It's exactly the same product but for Italians, there is a huge difference between spaghetti and fusilli for instance.

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"We know it's the same product but it is important to pair the right pasta with the right sauce. An example of this is spaghetti Bolognese. The Italians don't really like spaghetti alla Bolognese, they would prefer tagliatelle alla Bolognese with cheese."

Roberta, who is originally from Puglia in southern Italy, added: "The sauce is from Bologna so we want to pair it with the typical pasta shape of the region, so that's why we would always pair tagliatelle with the Bolognese. It's to please people from these regions."

An Italian chef has shared the common mistakes people make when cooking bolognese (Pixabay)

She continued: "We're very serious about shape and this also applies to carbonara as well. Some people want to be more extreme and will pair it with whatever shape they fancy, but let me tell you, it should be bucatini or spaghetti for this sauce."

As for ingredients, many of us might include mushrooms, beef stock or other additions to our Bolognese recipe - but the chef frowns upon these alterations. Roberta said: "It should be made in a traditional way using different cuts of meat, with a beautiful tomato sauce, and then infused and cooked for hours, but no mushrooms please."

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