Meat Sauce (Italian Ragù Genovese Napoletana)

Genovese sauce is a rich, onion-based pasta sauce from the region of Campania, Italy. Likely introduced to Naples from the northern Italian city of Genoa during the Renaissance, it has since become famous in Campania and forgotten elsewhere. The sauce is unusual for the long preparation time used to soften and flavour the onions. Besides ragù alla napoletana, la genovese is probably the most iconic of all Neapolitan pasta sauces, and yet it is little known outside Italy or, for that matter, little seen outside Naples itself. And, for reasons I cannot quite figure out, it did not seem to survive the trans-Atlantic voyage; in my experience, la genovese does not form part of the Italian-American repertoire. All of which is really a shame, because this has got to be one of the most delicious sauces ever devised for dressing pastasciutta. The dish requires long, slow cooking but can simmer unattended for most of the time. Genovese sauce is prepared by sautéing either beef, veal or pork in a large number of onions, for at least two but as many as ten hours. The onions are typically accompanied by minced carrots and celery in what is sometimes known as a mirepoix, and the sauce may be additionally seasoned using garlic, marjoram, and either bacon, prosciutto or lard. The slow cooking of the onions is especially important for the sauce's flavour, and is facilitated by incremental additions of white wine, stock, or both. The sauce and accompanying pasta can be served with the meat from the sauce or separately, garnished with tomatoes, and topped with Parmesan or provolone cheese. Large, cylindrical pasta like rigatoni, ziti or candele are favoured because they can hold the rich sauce. The meat can be served together with the ragù or as a separate course.

2 lbs onions
1 clove garlic
1 rib celery
1 carrot
1 oz lard
1 oz salame
1 oz prosciutto
3 oz olive oil
2 oz pancetta, chopped
1 oz tomato paste
1 lb lean ground beef
1 cup white wine
kosher or sea salt
black pepper, freshly cracked
beef bouillon, as needed

Preheat an oven to 350°F.

Cut onion, garlic, celery and carrot into julienne. Coarsely chop lard, salame and prosciutto. Place the lot into a baking pan, adding oil and pancetta.

Sauté slowly, over low heat until the vegetables are soft but not browned. Brown it all around, add the beef and dilute the paste into ½ cup of lukewarm water and add to the pot together with the wine. Place the roast into the preheated oven.

Cook for 3-4 hours, adding beef bouillon as necessary.

Season with salt and pepper. The final result should be that of a rather dark, glazed sauce.

Cook's Notes:

• Recipes range in the ratio of meat to onion, from almost 1:1 (usually a bit less meat than onion) to 1:2, with most calling for 1:1.5, as indicated here.
• The most common variation of this dish, much used for an everyday version of la genovese, is to omit the beef and simply use the bits of salumi to provide savour to the onions (it's a good use for any spare bits that may be hanging around your fridge) or even no meat at all. Either of these versions can be called la finta genovese or 'mock genovese'.
• Some recipes call for a bit of tomato purée or paste towards the end, by the original - and my preferred - version is in bianco. Some versions also call for adding a great deal of water, enough to immerse the meat, and letting it reduce over time, rather than adding it bit by bit, using the so called arrosto morto technique.
• The typical pasta, as mentioned, is ziti, especially the long type that you break into sections by hand (pictured in the post on zitoni al forno) but another stubby pasta like penne would also do. I have seen recipes calling for bucatini, also known as perciatelli, a kind of thick, hollow spaghetti that is popular in both Naples and Rome (and is indispensible to make the Roman classic bucatini all'amatriciana).