Tagliatelle with Beef Shin & Barolo Wine Ragù

In this special ragù, our chefs slowly - carefully - brown pieces of beef shin until they take on a deep, burnished hue, before deglazing with wine. This week, they've also selected a fabulously rich and aromatic Barolo to add incredible depth. Barolo is a full-bodied, tannic wine from Italy's Piemonte, and is often described as one of the country's - if not the world's - best wines. In this respect, it's the perfect wine to use in this special ragù, which gently simmers for hours and hours until the beef reaches a silky consistency and ceases to cling to the bone. We pair this rich ragù with fresh tagliatelle, which, as the good people of Bologna (where tagliatelle hail from) will testify, are perfect for sopping up every last morsel of this ragù. 

Tagliatelle are a flat pasta, whose official width and thickness as stated by the Bolognese Chamber of Commerce are 6mm x 1mm. Legend states that tagliatelle was invented on the night of Annibale II Bentivoglio’s wedding to Lucrezia from the house of Este in 1487, by Lucrezia’s talented chef, after seeing her ribbon-like hairstyle. However, there is much speculation as to if this was actually true or a joke made up by humourist Augusto Majani in 1931.