Neapolitan Style Ragu Recipes

NEAPOLITAN RAGU

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Set a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add a 3-count of olive oil and gently brown the meatballs. Meanwhile, with a mortar and pestle, grind the salt, black peppercorns and fennel seeds with some olive oil into a grainy paste. Rub the ribs and shoulder with the mixture.
• Remove the meatballs with a slotted spoon and set aside on a paper towel-lined plate to drain. In the same pot, brown the shoulder pieces and ribs, in batches. Alternately to save time, roast the ribs in a preheated 500 degree F oven for 10 to 15 minutes while you brown the shoulder pieces in the pot.
• Remove the shoulder pieces and ribs to the meatball plate and let rest.
• Add a little more olive oil to the pot and add the thyme, oregano, carrots, onion and celery. Stir it around and scrape up the bits from the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Cook the vegetables until they are slightly softened and have some nice color. Add the wine, tomatoes and tomato paste and mix well, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom. Nestle the pork shoulder pieces back into the middle of the pot then arrange the ribs around the sauce. Finish by placing the meatballs in the gaps (some of the pieces will be sticking out from the sauce but that's perfectly fine as it will roast and caramelize). Use a spoon to baste everything well, cover, then put the pot into the oven and roast until the pork is tender and the meat is just falling off the rib bones, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• For the topping: Combine the chopped raisins, toasted pine nuts and parsley in a small bowl.
• Use a slotted spoon to remove the meatballs and ribs to a large platter. Remove the pork shoulder pieces from the pot and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing into bite-size pieces and adding them to the platter. Puree the sauce in a food processor then add it back to the pot and set over medium heat. Reduce the sauce until it is rich and thick, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, if needed. When the spaghetti is cooked, drain and add to a medium bowl. Spoon a little sauce over the spaghetti and the remaining sauce over the platter of meat. Garnish the meat platter with the raisin mixture and serve.
• Heat 3 tablespoons oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and parsley and cook until the vegetables are soft but not colored, about 10 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let the mixture cool.
• Add the bread to a medium bowl and pour in the milk. Let the bread soak while the onions are cooling. Combine the meats in a large bowl. Add the egg and cheese and season generously with salt and pepper. Use your hands to squeeze the excess milk out of the bread and add it to the bowl along with the cooled onion mixture. Gently combine all the ingredients with your hands until just mixed together. Don't overwork the mixture or the meatballs will be tough. Divide the mixture into 8 equal pieces and shape them into 8 nice looking meatballs. Refrigerate until ready to cook.

NEAPOLITAN STYLE RAGU

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a large 6qt heavy bottomed sauté pan (make sure you have a tight fitting lid for later or worst case scenario, be prepared to later cover your pan tightly with foil) over medium-high heat.
• Pat the meat dry with paper towels to remove any moisture. Season the meat with salt and ground pepper and brown both sides in your heated pan. When the meat hits the pan it should sizzle. If it does not sizzle, it means your pan is not hot enough. Alternatively, if your pan is too hot, the olive oil will start smoking and, then well, you can start a nice little kitchen fire. Just keep the pan on medium/high heat, throw in one cube of beef as a test and if it makes a friendly but not aggressive sizzle, add the rest of your beef. The beef should fit in one layer with plenty of space in your pan. Based on the size of your pan, you may need to brown the meat in two sets. If your meat is over crowded it will steam and not brown which is no good for this sauce. (If you want to know why from a more authoritative scientific source than me, go look up Harold McGee + Maillard Reaction.).
• Once you have browned all of your beef, remove and place in shallow bowl so as to collect accumulated juices. Turn the heat slightly down to medium and add diced pork to the pan, allowing it to render fat but not brown (about three minutes).
• Add diced onion to pork, coat in fat and cook until translucent, but not brown, (about three to five minutes depending on how finely you have diced your onion). Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent browning.
• Once the onion is translucent and NOT one moment before, add the garlic. If you add the garlic too soon it will quickly burn and ruin your entire sauce. If there is one way to ruin a meal and simultaneously piss off the entire country of Italy, it is too serve sauce with burnt garlic. Stir the garlic in the pork/onion mixture for about 60 seconds. If the garlic is starting to turn golden, add the wine, like, NOW!
• Now that you have a mixture of fat, onion and garlic in your skillet, you have what is called a soffritto in Italian. Slowly add the wine to your soffritto. Deglaze the pan by stirring with a wooden spoon to release all the brown bits that are probably sticking to it by now. The wine should reduce by one half.
• When your wine is finished reducing, return the beef and its accumulated juices to the pan and add the whole tomatoes and their juices.
• Add the oregano, bay leaf (and if you have it, the outer rind of parmesan cheese), stir the beef to coat with sauce mixture and bring to a boil.
• Once you have brought your ragù to a boil, lower the heat to a faint simmer, cover and cook for three hours. Ever so occasionally stir the sauce with a wooden spoon and break down the whole tomatoes as you stir. If you find that your ragù is drying out a bit you can add ½ cup of cold water and stir to incorporate. (NOTE: if you want to make this sauce in a slow cooker you can prepare through this step and then put in the slow cooker according to manufacturer instructions: generally on low setting for six hours and high setting for three hours. Don't worry about stirring throughout braising process with this method but make sure to break up the tomatoes when the sauce is done slow cooking).
• When your ragù has simmered for about three hours, it's time to bring your pasta water to a rolling boil. Add salt to the boiling pasta water. For most Italians, the rule of thumb is 1 liter of water for every 100 grams of pasta, and add to that 10 grams of salt (known as the 1000/ 100/ 10 ratio of water/pasta/salt). If you want to actually measure out your water, salt and pasta go for it. I just bring a lot of water to boil, add a generous amount of salt and test to see if the water tastes brackish.
• Once the salted pasta water is boiling viciously, add the penne, stir with fork so they don't stick together and cook to al dente (usually about ten minutes for penne, and you can always taste the pasta if you are unsure). Do not be tempted to add olive oil to your boiling water. It will create an oil slick that will prevent the ragù from adhering to the pasta. You only add olive oil to fresh pasta, which is more delicate and has a tendency to clump together without the aid of olive oil.
• When penne is cooked to al dente, drain it immediately and reserve about five tablespoons of pasta water.
• Uncover your ragù, remove the bay leaf/ parmesan rind. Now add the drained penne and the reserved pasta water immediately (do not allow the pasta to rest and thusly become flaccid in a colander).
• Raise the heat to medium high and stir with a wooden spoon to coat penne with sauce. If you are dexterous in the wrist, instead of stirring the pasta to coat you can flip it in the pan (this is the preferred Neapolitan method). Stir and cook for about one minute. This step of mixing the pasta and ragù is critical as it coats the pasta with the sauce and creates a unified dish.
• Plate your penne ragù (I prefer using a shallow bowl), add a few gratings of Parmesan to taste, basil garnish and serve warm with bread.