Ragout or ragout? Tell me how you write it and I will tell you who you are: more or less young, modern or romantic in nature. Discovering a word born in France that later became a symbol of Italian cuisine in the world
To look for the origins of one of the most expensive terms of Italian cuisine, we must go beyond the Alps.
The term ragù in fact derives from the French ragôut which means "remettre en appetit" or to awaken, stimulate the appetite. More specifically, it is a word composed of the French term goût, which means taste, and which originates from the Latin gustus.
Since the Renaissance, the word ragoût in France indicates all those recipes that involve cutting small pieces of meat, fish or vegetables which are then stewed slowly, as in the preparation of a stew.
The term ragoût is still used internationally today to generally indicate a stew of parts of meat (or fish) and vegetables, served as a single or side dish for rice, mashed potatoes or polenta. Very different from our conception of ragù which provides, in the most common Bolognese version, that the meat is finely chopped and used to season fresh egg or dried pasta or to stuff lasagna or pies.
The Italianization of the term ragoût has seen two phases: in the first, only the circumflex accent is eliminated, thus leaving the word "ragout", which however has always been read according to Italian phonetics.
The simplification with the final tonic accent on "ragù", to ensure its French pronunciation, is actually a recent thing, which dates back to the post-war period and to the following years 50 and 60 when the Italian language began to conform and spread, thanks also the spread of TV.
Beppe Severgnini, born in 1956, writes in his book "Italiani si becomes" of 1998: "No one who came into the world when ragù was still written ragoût can claim to be young".
From the fascist ragù to the english one
An etymological curiosity occurs in the fascist era, when during this period of extreme nationalism, the name from the French was Italianized in "ragutto" which however did not take root in culture and was soon forgotten.
Another example of evolution of the term occurs in England, where for example it is still called ragout without the French-speaking accent, and indicates typical dishes of stewed meat and vegetables, while with ragu only the Italian ragù is identified, or better that Bolognese.
In the past, however, ragoo was written, as evidenced by some 18th century English recipes. from the cooking manual The Compleat Housewif " like the Ragoo of Pigs-Ears, the pig ear ragout.
Ragout is a romantic thing
In general in Italy today the term ragout is still used to indicate all those preparations of stewed meat, fish or vegetables.
While the more recent term indicates more correctly the classic Italian ragù such as the Bolognese, Neapolitan or Sardinian, which season fresh or dried pasta.
When we find ragout written in a menu, it is therefore not to be considered incorrect, but simply romantic.
Text by Virginia Simoni
