Spaghetti Bolognese with Ramps

In many parts of West Virginia, a bastardized version of Bolognese meat sauce is the default spaghetti sauce. Hell, I thought that beef sauce was "spaghetti sauce" until I lived in England and found out that its proper name indicated that it was just the sauce in the style of Bologna, not the entire world.

I kinda figured that West Virginia's official state pasta sauce would be a good match with our state spring veggie, ramps.

I started out with a pound of ground beef and some chopped young ramps:


I mixed them in a saucepan:



and browned the beef:



I then drained the beef and chose a spicy sauce that could stand alongside the pungent ramp flavor:




I heated the sauce a bit and then added the beef-ramp combo:



Simmered for a bit:




and served over spaghetti with some shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, garlic Texas toast, and a Löwenbräu:



While this turned out to be a great American-style Bolognese (and tasted even better the next day), it failed to capture the ramp flavor I had hoped to taste in this dish. As a meat sauce, I give it 4 out of 5 Towers of Asinellis. For lacking a certain ramp-tasticness, though, I only give it 2 out of 5 Lumberjacks.

Next time, I will use more ramps and perhaps make a simple tomato sauce with some crushed tomatoes and garlic to go with the beef and ramps.

Up next: what happens when ramps meet salmon?