Ragù is generally defined as a meat sauce in Italy, with the fast food versions using ground meat and the long-cooked versions using large pieces of animal muscle and cooked until the meat practically disolves. But a ragu made of polpo is not as uncommon as you might think, especially along the sea. We had the version you see in the photo in Lavagna in the region of Liguria, at the restaurant called Delfino Verde It used a fresh tagliatelle for the pasta, the same as you’d use for the most recognized Ragù, that of Bologna, called bolognese. Like a ragù bolognese, it should use tomatoes sparingly.
The Ragù is made of ground tomatoes, passata di pomodoro, along with the standard chop of onion, celery and carrot sauteed in olive oil and a little wine, usually white. It’s cooked together with the octopus for about an hour. It does have a hearty, almost meaty flavor, and pairs exceedingly well with the egg pasta.
If you are interested in history and have a hankering for something sweet in Lavagna, you may wish to seek out a piece of what they call the Fieschi Wedding Cake.
Come here during the dog days of August and you can celebrate this sweet, um, delight. The festival Torta Fieschi commemorates Count Opizzo Fieschi and Bianca de Bianchi’s wedding day in 1230, when Opizzo invited nearly everyone to share a cake that that spiraled to a height of 30 feet until someone could figure out how to cut the darned thing down to manageable size. — Lavagna: Eating the Fieschi’s Cake
Eat well.