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Ragù alla Napoletana
Created by Chef Graziella
The Sunday sauce of Naples, where whole cuts of beef and pork surrender to tomato over five patient hours. The pasta comes first, dressed in concentrated sauce. The meat follows as its own course.
This is not Bolognese. Do not confuse them. Ragù alla Napoletana is tomato-forward, cooked until the sauce turns from bright red to the deep burgundy of old wine. The meat goes in whole and comes out so tender it falls apart when you look at it sternly.
In Naples, this sauce cooks on Sunday mornings while families attend Mass. The grandmother stays home to mind the pot, adjusting the flame, listening for the slow bubbling the Neapolitans call 'pippiare.' That sound tells you the sauce is cooking correctly: a lazy, intermittent blup-blup, never a vigorous boil.
The genius of this dish is that it gives you two courses from one pot. The pasta, usually ziti or rigatoni, comes first, dressed with the concentrated sauce and showered with Pecorino Romano. Then the meat arrives, arranged on a platter, the reward for your patience. This is how Sundays were meant to unfold.
Ingredients
beef chuck roast
Quantity
2 pounds
in one piece
pork spare ribs
Quantity
1 pound
separated into individual ribs
Italian pork sausages
Quantity
1 pound
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| beef chuck roastin one piece | 2 pounds |
| pork spare ribsseparated into individual ribs | 1 pound |
| Italian pork sausages | 1 pound |
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