Food —

By virtue of it no longer being the 1950s, most people in the UK know what balsamic vinegar is. It has fast become a staple in many a middle-class household cupboard, whipped out and laboriously sloshed over salads across the nation. Sometimes we might even go fancy and buy a ‘balsamic glaze’, to spruce up a cheese board or a few strawberries because Jamie Oliver says its a good idea.

Actually, we’re doing it all wrong.

The stuff we’re buying by the bottle from the supermarket isn't the proper stuff at all. A good balsamic vinegar is more expensive than a decent bottle of wine. It’s thick, syrupy, sweet and acidic in equal measures, and you can only get the real Aceto di Balsamico from Modena

I paid a visit to Acetaia del Cristo, a farm which has been produced this beautifully brown syrupy stuff for over four generations to learn all about it.

Here’s something that will blow your mind.

Spaghetti Bolognese does not actually hail from Bologna. Its an anglophone bastardisation of a typical local dish - Tagliatelle al Ragu.

Unlike the Bolognese we all know and love, which has become a staple of the student kitchen, a real ragu is much more refined. Onions, celery and carrot are diced so finely they melt and there's a real emphasis on fresh tomatoes - one tin of tomatoes just wont do. Generally two different types of meats are used too, a minced beef and a minced sausage or smoked ham.

You wont find it served with Spaghetti anywhere in Bologna. For starters, Spaghetti is local to Napoli, not Bologna. It’s more than that though - the rich, thick sauce clings to the thick ribbons of fresh, egg pasta far better than its skinny sister.

Lasagna is an equally popular dish here, though equally corrupted outside of Italy. It uses a similar ragu, with lashings of a creamy bechemal sauce. Lasagne Verdi, made with green sheets of pasta which are prepared with the addition of spinach, is everywhere.

So there we go. Your ‘spag bol’ should actually be a ‘tag bol’.