The authentic Neapolitan Ragù. The original recipe
The true “Neapolitan Ragù” is not just sauce, seasoning, but it requires a lot of patience and passion. Each ingredient must have its own cooking time (at least six hours in total!) and preferably should rest for a day.
The true Neapolitan ragù is dark red, otherwise it’s just meat with tomato and it needs to “simmer” for at least 5-6 hours.
In Naples, ragù is the typical seasoning for the family Sunday lunch, for gatherings and holidays, ideal for dressing lasagna, gnocchi, and pasta dishes.
In my recipe, I’m revealing all my family’s secrets to prepare the authentic Neapolitan Ragù (the traditional dark red one) with photos and step-by-step instructions, you can’t go wrong, and the success of this dish at the table is guaranteed.
In Naples, every family has its own ragù recipe, this is the original ragù from my family, passed down through generations and it always achieves great success.
With this ragù, you can dress thick pasta (in Naples, they use “broken ziti”) gnocchi, lasagna, tagliatelle.
The meat with the ragù, is also a tasty second course, the meat is very tender, even better if served with “friarielli” as a side (a kind of tender turnip tops, fried raw in a pan with garlic, oil, and chili pepper) and it makes a great one-dish meal.
The ragù, the traditional Neapolitan one, must simmer (from peppïà – pippijà = bubble, making the sound of the pipe).
A Neapolitan ragù that simmers without bubbling for many hours, wouldn’t be a true ragù, just meat with tomato.
Only after the sauce has bubbled for several hours and the strange phenomenon of oil and lard separation occurs, floating to the surface, leaving the tomato sauce at the bottom of the pot, can you be sure that the ragù is complete, and after a quick stir with the trusty wooden spoon, you can turn off the heat (quote from the late Raffaele Bracale, here.)
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- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Day
- Preparation time: 6 Hours
- Portions: 8 people
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian Regional
- Region: Campania
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for Authentic Neapolitan Ragù
- 1.8 lbs Beef round (in Naples we use the piccione cut, it must be top-quality meat, I have it cut into LARGE pieces by the butcher (NO minced meat))
- 1.1 lbs Pork shin (or 1.1 lbs of braciole of locena stuffed with fine salt, pepper, cubed pecorino cheese, minced garlic and parsley, raisins, and pine nuts, tied with string)
- 1.1 lbs Pork ribs (in Naples, they are called TRACCHIE)
- 2 sausages (optional)
- 3.5 oz Smoked bacon (rolled, cut into strips)
- 1.3 lbs Copper onions
- 3 Tomato purées (I use Cirio's authentic passata, 700g each)
- 7.1 oz Tomato paste (preferably double or triple concentrate)
- 7.1 oz Lard
- 3.5 oz Extra virgin olive oil (of quality)
- 1.3 cups Dry red wine (preferably Gragnano or Aglianico)
- to taste Black peppercorns (crushed)
- 0.5 oz Fine salt
- to taste Fresh chili (optional)
- to taste Grated Parmesan (or pecorino, optional)
- to taste Basil (optional)
Tools for Authentic Neapolitan Ragù
- Bowls Various sizes
- Cutting Board With two side trays for scraps
- Mezzaluna Sharp, with double blade
- High-sided Casserole Cast iron, Le Creuset
Steps for Neapolitan Ragù
First, finely chop the onions (no food processor) then take a high-sided casserole (preferably earthenware, cast iron, or copper) and let the onions soften with extra virgin olive oil, lard, bacon slices cut into pieces, and pepper for about 12 minutes.
I also add crushed chili because I like it, but the traditional recipe only considers crushed black peppercorns.
– PHASE I –
Then add all the meat to the casserole (large pieces of top cut, tracchie, pork shin (braciole and sausages are optional) and brown it over high heat for about 8 minutes (do not add salt), then cover it with a lid for 10 minutes over medium heat, it is said that the meat should be“stunned”.
When the onions start to color, uncover, stir, and turn the meat more often, adding, little by little, the dry red wine, which should completely evaporate. By this time, the onions will be well browned, all liquid will have disappeared, and only the fat will be left, slowly simmering.
This first phase will keep you busy for about 1.5 hours from the moment you add the meat to the casserole.
Throughout this time, it is advisable not to leave the stove: the onions could burn, ruining everything (better to check every 30 minutes)
– PHASE II –
During this phase, the pork ribs (tracchiolelle) will surely be cooked and should be removed gently to avoid breaking and falling apart.
Then, slightly increase the heat, just enough to add the other cold ingredients.
Add no more than two or three tablespoons of double (or triple) tomato paste and let it fry until it becomes very dark. Be very careful: the concentrate must melt into the fat but not burn!
Only at this point, add more concentrate, always in the same quantities, and so on, always with the same procedure, until you have finished it.
This second phase (even more delicate than the first because you have to check the meat’s cooking and because there’s a risk that the tomato will stick) will keep you busy for another 50 minutes (if the mixture tends to stick underneath, switch pots and use a non-stick one).
– PHASE III –
At this point, raise the flame again for 2 minutes, add all the tomato purée, the salt, the hand-torn basil leaves, and no more than a ladle of boiling water (used to clean the tomato bottles) lower the heat to the minimum and with the pot uncovered, add all the meat again, let it cook first for about an hour and then, with the lid on as suggested in the introduction, let it simmer (cook over very low heat) for at least 40 minutes
Let the meat rest in the sauce overnight, at room temperature, the next day, turn the heat back on to minimum and cook for about an hour, then remove the meat and let the sauce simmer covered over low heat for about 40 minutes.
The sauce will be cooked when it appears dense, shiny, very dark, and greasy.
Check the salt, it shouldn’t be necessary to add more, put the meat back in the pot and let it come back to a boil for a few minutes before using it.
Ragù still bright red
Ragù, cooked to perfection, dark red
Cook the pasta al dente and dress it with plenty of ragù and grated Parmesan or pecorino (optional). Or you can dress gnocchi, lasagna, or polenta with the ragù.
NOTES AND TIPS
It’s better to prepare the ragù the day before using it, letting it rest, it matures and becomes even more flavorful.
According to some, when the first boil of the sauce begins, it should cook for another 2 hours, but these should be divided between the late afternoon of the previous day and the morning of the following day. In between, there should be a night of rest when the meat blends with the sauce.
With these quantities, you can dress about 800g of pasta. If you need a lot of ragù for Neapolitan lasagna, I recommend adding one more 700g jar of tomato purée.
Shopping Tips!!!
To cook the ragù, I used this Le Creuset high-sided oval casserole which is perfect for slow cooking, like ragù, genovese, delicious and super-tender roasts, it distributes heat evenly and retains it for a long time, ensuring excellent results. The cost is not low, but now you can find it at a great price on Amazon, the ideal gift for Christmas.
To quickly chop vegetables, chop chocolate, nuts, and much more, this sharp double-blade mezzaluna is very convenient.
You can purchase all the items I recommend above, on Amazon, at a great price, just click directly on the respective links.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
What are the origins of Neapolitan Ragù?
This type of French preparation began to appear in Neapolitan cuisine around the 18th century, with the reign of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, a period in which there was a great influence of French culture and fashion at court; that’s why many Neapolitan dishes took their names from the “mangling” of French cooks (“monzù”), like the ragù (ragout).
What does ‘pippiare’ mean?
Peppiare (from peppïà – pippijà = bubble, making the sound of the pipe) is an onomatopoeic term indicating the sound similar to what one produces when taking a puff of smoke from a pipe when the flame under the pot where the ragù is bubbling is turned to a minimum, and the sauce is covered with a lid, leaving a small gap. The ragù, the traditional Neapolitan one, must peppiare (from peppïà – pippijà = bubble, making the sound of the pipe) is an onomatopoeic term indicating that preparatory phase just before the conclusion of the Neapolitan ragù preparation, when, from the bottom of the pot where the meat and tomato sauce are cooking, air bubbles repeatedly rise to the surface and burst, producing a sound similar to what one produces when taking a puff of smoke from a pipe. The Tuscan translates rather imprecisely and superficially: simmer. The secret to making the sauce ‘peppiare’ is – besides keeping the flame rather low – not completely covering the mouth of the pot with the lid, but placing the lid on one side of the pot, while on the opposite side you need to place the lid not on the edge of the pot but on the wooden spoon placed across the mouth, creating a small air circulation that prevents the sauce from getting too much force from the fire, thus preventing it from rushing into a boil, which would ruin everything.
