Ragù Napoletano

Whole pieces of meat cooked in tomato for most of a day, the sauce eaten first.

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

Ingredients

• 800 g beef topside, in thin slices for rolling
• 600 g pork ribs
• 300 g pork skin, in strips
• 100 g pecorino, 50 g raisins, 50 g pine nuts, parsley and garlic, for the rolls
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 250 ml dry red wine
• 1.5 kg passata
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 500 g ziti, to serve

Method

1. Lay out the beef slices, scatter pecorino, raisins, pine nuts, parsley and garlic on each, roll them and tie them. These are the braciole.
2. Roll the pork skin strips and tie those too.
3. Brown the braciole, ribs and skin rolls in the oil in a heavy pot, then the onion, then the wine.
4. Add the passata and bring it to the barest simmer.
5. COOK IT FOUR TO SIX HOURS ON THE LOWEST HEAT POSSIBLE, lid ajar, stirring with a wooden spoon every half hour. The sauce should mutter rather than bubble: if it is breaking the surface anywhere, the heat is too high. The finish is dark brick red, not tomato red.
6. THE MEAT STAYS IN WHOLE PIECES. It is not a mince and it is not bolognese: this ragu has almost no onion, no carrot, no celery and no milk, and the meat is lifted out and eaten afterwards as a second course.
7. Dress the ziti, snapped short, with the sauce alone, and bring the meat to the table after.

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