Well it was certainly on every menu we saw in Venice but that's just a sop to Brit tourists. Meaty ragùs are served up with ribbon pasta such as pappardelle, which holds the sauce much better than spaghetti. An Italian ragù will often contain pork as well as beef, often chicken livers too, will rarely contain garlic as well as onions, will be started with a soffritto of onion, celery and carrot (pancetta goes in mine too), will be cooked slow and long with the addition of milk, and last but not least will not include that abomination known as dried basil that blights many a Brit attempt at an Italian dish. And just dumping big gobs of sauce on top of a heap of pasta is simply not the done thing at all.