Comforting Neapolitan Ragu

All Neapolitan mammas have their own recipe for this intense, rich sauce. In fact it is more of a stew than a sauce as it contains roughly cut cubes or whole pieces of beef, often pork ribs and sometimes sausages. When the sauce is cooked, the tomato is spooned off from the meat and eaten with pasta for a first course, while the meat is served as a main course with vegetables.

Old cookbooks dictate that ragù should be cooked for a whole day and many cooks still do this, which results in a glorious beefy tomato sauce. It is for this reason that the quantity of canned tomatoes is huge as they reduce during cooking. Many Amalfitani originate from Naples and have never had any reason to change the recipe. Ours is from our Neapolitan sous-chef Marco di Simone, who got it from his mother, who in turn got it from hers.

A soffritto is a lightly fried mixture of vegetables, usually carrots, celery and onions, used as a base for ragù, stews and soups, providing a little sweetness to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes. The vegetables can be chopped by hand or very briefly whizzed in a food processor.

This is an edited extract from The Long And The Short Of Pasta by Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi published by Hardie Grant Books RRP $40, available in stores nationally.