Genovese Sauce

A Neapolitan sauce of beef and far more onion than beef, cooked until the onion collapses.

Pork, Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, pecorino whose rennet the source does not name, pork.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg onions, sliced thinly
• 700 g beef shin or chuck, in one piece
• 100 g pancetta, diced
• 1 carrot and 1 celery stick, diced
• 200 ml dry white wine
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 500 g ziti or paccheri
• grated pecorino, to serve

Method

1. There is nothing Genoese about this. It is Neapolitan, and the weight of onion to beef — nearly two to one — is the whole dish.
2. Brown the beef all over in the oil in a heavy pot, then lift it out.
3. Add the pancetta, carrot and celery, then ALL the onions. They will fill the pot to the brim and look absurd.
4. Return the beef, put the lid on, and cook on the lowest heat for 3 hours. ADD NO LIQUID AT ALL for the first hour — the onions release more than enough, and water added now gives you boiled onions in broth instead of a sauce.
5. Once the onions have collapsed to a quarter of their volume and begun to colour, add the wine and cook uncovered another hour, until the sauce is brown and jammy.
6. Lift the beef out and keep it for a second course. Season the sauce.
7. Cook the ziti, snapped into short lengths, and dress it with the sauce and plenty of pecorino.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes