Today I am going to share another delicious recipe: The Neapolitan Ragu. In the last century it became very famous thanks to a poem wrote by Eduardo de Filippo in 1947. Eduardo de Filippo was a playwright, an actor, a poet, a director and a political Neapolitan man. He was elected Senator

It’s not very easy to make this recipes, it requires time and patience. It’s a typical dish to cook for Sunday lunch in Naples.

Ingredients (for a big pan)……I would suggest to divide the ingredients into 2 or 3 depending for how many people are you cooking. If you have your family or friends over for Sunday lunch you can surprise them by cooking this tasty Ragu or you can even frozen the rest for the week after.

• Extra virgin olive oil and lard

• 4 big onion better if the brown ones

• 1 kg beef shank

• 1 beef chop prepared in advance with: 100 grams beef steak ( for the filling you need 1 garlic clove, pine nuts, sultanas previously soaked in warm water, parsley and pecorino romano or a strong cheese).

The name beef chop has nothing to do with the chop. You lay the steak , add salt and pepper; add the chopped garlic, parsley, pine nuts and cheese, the meat should be well wrapped and tied with a kitchen wire.

• 4 beef ribs about 400 grams.

• Fennel sausages about 400 grams you can find them in any Italian butcher or you can buy normal sausages and add fennel seeds inside).

• 2 pork rind.

• 2 litres of Passata or diced tomatoes.

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste.

• ¼ l red wine or white.

So let’s start to prepare it!

In the past they were cooking the Ragu in an earthenware pan, because it was able to resist the long cooking process; now you can cook it in a stain steel pan and you also need to use a wooden spoon, not a metallic one.

Put the oil, once it reaches the optimal temperature add the meats and wait until they get brown at this point add half of the wine until reduced. At this point add the chopped onions and let them brown. Add the rest of the wine and wait until reduced. When adding wine it’s better to raise the heat so it only takes 5 minutes for the wine to reduce.

Add the tomato paste dissolved in little water and the passata. It has to cook from this point 3-4 hours. It’s better to add salt and pepper nearly at the end with some basil leaves.

Tip: the meats may require more water than the tomatoes provides. In this case add it to your point of view.

Once ready let it cool down and serve with pasta. What Neapolitans say: The Ragu’s death is the pasta with the hole! So any pasta like Penne, Rigatoni, Ziti and many more, absolutely not Spaghetti! Add some Parmesan cheese.