#1 – Spaghetti Bolognese from ‘The Godfather: Part II’ (1974)

The Godfather series is a film heavily based on food, being used both as a plot device and as a means to bring families together (I mean it is of Italian origin after all), and Bolognese is one of the many dishes enjoyed within these films and is what I would like to focus on today. Traditionally, Bolognese sauce is made of lean veal filet along with pancetta, butter, onion and carrot. The meats and vegetables are to be finely minced, cooked with lard and covered and cooked with broth. It is served alongside pasta (typically tagliatelle which can be substituted for most flat-style pasta) with parmesan cheese. The use of lard, as opposed to butter or olive oil, is demonstrative of the region in which this dish originated; Bologna. Bologna is in the Emilia region of Italy which is known for its lard, being “very white, firm and possess[ing] a delicate, comforting aroma of bay leaves” as according to Artusi, a man namely responsible for the unification of Italy by celebrating Italy’s various foods from each region. Butter was more frequently used in the more northern region of Lombardy and olive oil was prevalent in the south of Italy where olive trees thrived. This dish was in fact mentioned in Artusi’s cookbook, La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiare bene. He went on to mention that as a result of the region’s climate, Bologna’s cuisine was a bit rugged, but certainly wholesome and tasty. Even though the characters in the film are existing within Sicily, the dish of Bologna is still eaten, highlighting the regional diversity which was celebrated early on in Italy’s history and has lead to the country becoming the food capital it is known as today. However, the existence of “Spaghetti Bolognese” is considered by the people from Bologna as a “crime against ragù” and is not to be eaten anywhere even near Italy, rather it is a westernised interpretation of the dish consumed outside of Italy.