Pici with white ragù and Chianti Classico: why it works

This is the dish we make when friends turn up for dinner unannounced: few ingredients, an hour over a low flame and a bottle of Chianti Classico opened while the sauce rests. White ragù is the tomato-free version of the Tuscan meat sauce, more delicate and more fragrant, and pici, the thick hand-rolled spaghetti, catch it like no other pasta.

Ingredients for four

For the pici: 400 g plain flour, about 200 ml warm water, a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt. For the ragù: 300 g pork and 200 g veal, chopped by knife, an onion, a carrot, a stick of celery, a sprig of rosemary, a glass of white wine, hot stock, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, Tuscan pecorino for grating.

The pici

Knead flour, water, oil and salt into a smooth ball; rest it for half an hour under a cloth. Roll it out a centimetre thick, cut strips and roll them with your palm on the floured table into spaghetti as thick as a pencil. They should not all be the same: that is the point.

The ragù

Gently fry the finely chopped onion, carrot and celery with the rosemary. Raise the heat, add the meat and let it brown well, stirring little. Add the white wine, let it evaporate, cover just with stock and turn the heat to the minimum: an hour and a half, adding stock if it dries. The result should be soft, not liquid. Salt and pepper at the end.

The dish

Cook the pici in salted water, four or five minutes from the boil; drain, keeping a ladle of water, and toss them in the ragù with a thread of raw oil. Grated pecorino at the table.

Why Chianti Classico

White ragù is rich and fragrant but has none of the acidity of tomato: it needs a wine that brings its own. The Sangiovese of Chianti Classico has lively acidity and fine tannin: it lightens the meat, binds with the pecorino and does not cover the rosemary. We serve it at 16 to 18 degrees, in a tulip glass, the youngest vintage. With the Riserva, the dish becomes a Sunday.