Neapolitan ragù

Neapolitan ragù

Served with paccheri pasta
Alternative names	In Italian: ragù napoletano or ragù alla napoletana In Neapolitan: rraù
Type	Ragù
Place of origin	Italy
Region or state	Naples, Campania
Media: Neapolitan ragù

Neapolitan ragù is a ragù associated with the city of Naples, made by browning then braising meat over several hours in tomato puree. When ready, the meat is removed, and the sauce is left to continue cooking and thickening. In the Italian meal structure, the ragù is served over two courses, first with the sauce served over pasta, and then the meat alone, lightly dressed with remaining sauce.

The Neapolitan ragù is less well-known than the ragù associated with Bologna. The two differ in several respects: Neapolitan ragù is cooked longer, is served with short pasta rather than long tagliatelle, always includes tomatoes, contains less carrot and celery, and uses whole pieces of meat, rather than ground.^[1][2][3][4]

Several Neapolitan writers describe the ragù as the "queen of sauces" and it is among the most complicated in Neapolitan cuisine.^[5] In Italian, it is known as ragù napoletano or ragù alla napoletana (Italian: [raˈɡu alla napoleˈtaːna]; Neapolitan: rraù).^[6][7]

Origin

As with all ragùs, Neapolitan ragù evolved from the French ragout, which was first described in the early 17th century. For their first two hundred years, ragouts were understood as a class of sauces that could dress otherwise plain servings of meat,^[8] and for at least part of that period were prepared in a basic method of browning meat and vegetables in fat, braising them in a broth, before finally thickening the dish with flour.^[9] In the second half of the 17th century, ragouts spread across Europe, and by 1662 had made it to northern Italy, when chef Bartolomeo Stefani [it] wrote of a ragù made from "egg yolks, mastic, lemon juice and veal kidney fat".^[10] Within 30 years, ragù had arrived in Naples under the name raù. One recipe for this was described by the steward Antonio Latini, comprising a cut of veal that was stuffed, baked, and served with a separately-cooked sauce. It featured ingredients foreign to the modern ragù, including asparagus, black cherry, sweetbreads and truffle.^[11][12]

In 1773, Neapolitan chef Vincenzo Corrado [it] in Il cuoco galante [it] listed several ways ragù was being eaten: with veal, sturgeon, and eggs.^[10] Elsewhere in Il cuoco galante, Corrado gave a recipe for timballo, a baked pasta dish derived from the French timbale. Corrado's recipe included the meat gravy sugo di carne ('meat sauce'), representing an early example of pasta and meat being eaten together in a single dish.^[13] 17 years after Il cuoco galante, Francesco Leonardi described a dish of maccaroni alla Napolitana in his book L'Apicio moderno. Leonardi's dish resembled Corrado's, with the distinction that the pasta in his recipe was not encased in pastry. Leonardi also gave a very broad treatment of ragùs, providing 73 recipes using ingredients such as truffles, champagne, herbs, and butter, as well as "chicken livers, combs and testicles, unlaid eggs, prawn tails [and] artichoke bottoms". One ragù recipe recommends serving with a baked pasta, the first time a ragù from the ragout tradition and pasta had been recorded together.^[14]

Around 1807, a second edition of L'Apicio moderno was published, and the recipe for Maccheroni alla Napolitana was updated to include tomatoes. Another cookbook published around the same time, La cucina casareccia authored by an "M. F." offered two further developments: for the first time, the term "ragù" is used instead of sugo di carne for the meat sauce accompanying pasta, and a recipe for pasta and ragù close to the modern version is supplied, still distinct by the serving of ragù over grated cheese.^[15][16] Ragù was still not often eaten—meat was a rarity for the poor of southern Italy, who could afford it only a few times a year, most often around holidays.^[17] In the 19th and 20th centuries, cookbooks began to target women in the home, and recipes were adapted to suit cooks who could spend less time cooking, and with this ragù became associated with holidays and Sunday lunch. Versions with and without tomatoes continued to exist until the 20th century, when inclusion became mandatory.^[18]

Ingredients

In Naples, despite the elements of meat and tomato, the local ragù is viewed primarily as a meat sauce (sugo di carne); and the tomato is viewed as the medium to carry the meat flavour.^[3][1]

Which meat or combination thereof a cook uses is determined by preference and location. On the plains of Campania, water buffalo are consumed where they are reared. In Benevento, at least part of the meat is lamb, and in the Cilento mountains of Salerno, goat is used, both the young, and the castrated and old.^[3] Cuts of meat favoured for ragù are those that take hours to tenderise; beef shoulder and shins, and pork short ribs are typical.^[19][20] In Naples' poorer past, the choice of meat was informed by economy, and meat offcuts and sausages were common.^[17]

Over the second half of the 20th century, pork gained prominence in preparations, and a ragù made simply from cuts of beef fell out of fashion.^[21] By the 1990s, a ragù made of braciola, beef stuffed with cheese and other fillings, had become a popular preparation after the price of the ingredient fell.^[3] Over the same period, preparations of Neapolitan ragù became less fatty. Before World War II, some recipes had used olive oil and rendered and unrendered lard together in one preparation, sometimes also with the addition of butter. By the mid-1990s, a lighter ragù had become popular. Chefs cooked with less and sometimes no fat.^[3] Cotica, pig skin softened over a long cooking process, is a common addition. In a ragù preparation, it is rolled tightly, enclosing garlic, raisins, parsley and pine nuts and added to the simmering sauce. Pork sausages are also often included.^[3]

Tomato appears as paste and puree.^[19] Older preparations of the ragù used conserva, a deep red tomato paste, made by salting, drying and milling tomatoes,^[22] before leaving them to dry in the sun, but by the mid-1990s this had become hard to find in the city.^[23] A soffritto emphasising onion is included, except in Benevento, where garlic, sometimes in conjunction with onion is used.^[3] Including both in a single dish is uncommon in Campanian cooking, which perceives it to be redundant.^[4] Other ingredients include red wine and basil.^[19][20]

Preparation

Simmering in a pot

Neapolitan ragù is made by slowly braising meat or meats in tomato puree. When ready, the meat is removed, and the sauce is left to reduce and thicken.^[24][19] To add depth of flavour, a technique in Naples involves adding tomato sauce periodically, allowing the liquid to reduce between additions.^[19]

Neapolitan ragù is known for taking a long time to cook, and stories told within families of Naples describe ragù being cooked "all day" in the era before World War II. In those days, ragù was cooked in pottery cookware over an unreliable coal fire, which required ongoing vigilance in addition to the need to intermittently stir the sauce to prevent burning. For this, the ragù acquired the name "sugo della guardaporta", 'sauce of the door-keeper', the only group popularly said to have the time needed to keep watch. Despite the dish being prepared for larger families, in large pots with correspondingly long cook times, descriptions of cook times taking entire days are probably fanciful.^[3][24]

By the mid-1990s, the lighter ragù had become popular. This was cooked for less time, although it was commonly believed that the sauce had to cook for at least 2.5 hours to be considered ragù. Around that time, it was held, a dramatic flavour transformation occurs.^[3] Today, in an Italy where more women work full-time jobs than they have historically, the need to cook ragù over several hours has reduced the frequency at which it is made, and has brought about an industry selling mass-produced ragù sauce by the jar.^[25]

Families in Naples continue to make ragù, following recipes they keep secret.^[21] The distinctive smell released as the meat cooks is associated with Sundays, and according to the researchers Patrícia Branco and Richard Mohr, promotes "a relaxed and family-oriented mood".^[26] At times, emotive disagreements take place on social media over what preparation should be considered the most traditional. Offline versions of such disputes were dramatised in the 1990 film adaptation of Eduardo De Filippo's 1959 play Saturday, Sunday and Monday, in a scene where Sophia Loren's character, visiting a butcher, argues with customers and staff.^[21]

Serving

As with several dishes in Neapolitan cuisine such as Genovese sauce, ragù di salsiccia, and stuffed squid, Neapolitan ragù is served across two courses.^[27] In the first, the sauce, separated from the meat, is served over a short, ridged pasta such as macaroni, gnocchi, or ziti. This is sometimes topped with a silver of meat. The meat then follows as the second course, dressed with some remaining sauce.^[1][22][28] If cotica has been added, it is cut into slivers and portioned out to diners.^[3] Which pasta is used varies with place; cavatelli in Benevento, fusilli in the Alburni mountain range of Salerno, and in Naples, ziti, the last as the archetypal start to a Sunday lunch.^[29][30] If the meat is not eaten, it may be kept for the next day.^[28]

During Carnival, Neapolitan ragù covers the local lasagne di Carnevale, a baked pasta dish containing mozzarella and ricotta, sausages and small fried meatballs, as well as hard-boiled eggs.^[1] It is also sometimes included in the baked pasta dish timballo.^[3]

In North America

Spaghetti and meatballs is adapted from Neapolitan ragù.

As Italians emigrated to America in the late 19th century, adaptations of Neapolitan ragù continued to be eaten as Sunday dinner, and the dish of spaghetti and meatballs was derived.^[31][32]

Arriving in America, Italians immigrants found meat much more affordable, allowing the poor to have it at every Sunday dinner. It was often prepared as a meat sauce, sometimes called "gravy" owing to a mistranslation of ragù. Most of the time, this meat sauce was an adaptation of Neapolitan ragù, and many families maintained the practice of serving ragù over two courses. The amount and type of meat used varied as income permitted, but beef, pork, salt pork, sausages, and veal were common. Braciola was another frequent inclusion; in the American version stuffed with ham, breadcrumbs, cheese, and herbs. With the gathering of family, the Sunday dinner was an important ritual for Italian Americans, even after meat consumption spread across the week as families grew wealthier.^[31]

By the early 20th century, Neapolitan ragù had been adapted into the dish spaghetti and meatballs, seen in recipes published in newspapers across America. In this new dish, the cuts of meat present in Neapolitan ragù were substituted for large balls of ground-meat, which were served atop a pile of spaghetti. These concepts: serving meatballs with spaghetti, meatballs as large as those in America, and serving entree meat with pasta were foreign to Italian cooking. As spaghetti and meatballs gained popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, driven by restaurant economics and the Great Depression, the division between a first course of pasta served with sauce and a second course of dressed meat became less observed. The same was seen in homes, although some families retained the practice in their Sunday meals.^[32]

See also

• Italy portal
• Food portal

• List of meat-based sauces
• Sausages in Italian cuisine

References

1. Del Conte, Anna (2004) [2001]. The Concise Gastronomy of Italy. New York: Barnes and Nobles. pp. 174, 287, 305, 321, 322. ISBN 0-7607-6344-5.
2. Tebben, Maryann (2017). "Semiotics of sauce: Representing Italian/American identity through sauce". In Naccarato, Peter; Nowak, Zachary; Eckert, Elgin K (eds.). Representing Italy Through Food. London & New York: Bloomsbury. pp. 185–186, 194. ISBN 978-1-4742-8042-6.
3. Schwartz 1998, pp. 52–54.
4. MacAllen 2022, p. 77.
5. Schwartz 1998, pp. 44, 52–53.
6. May, T. (2005). Italian Cuisine: The New Essential Reference to the Riches of the Italian Table. St. Martin's Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-312-30280-1. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
7. "Ragù Napoletano 'o 'Rraù di Antonio Sorrentino". italiasquisita.net. Archived from the original on October 26, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
8. Cesari 2022, p. 177.
9. Cesari 2022, Chapter 6 - Dangerous delicacies.
10. Cesari 2022, Chapter 6 - Ragù comes to Italy.
11. Cesari, Luca (October 26, 2024). "Napoletano o Bolognese? La storia (senza pomodoro) dei due ragù che dividono l'Italia". Gambero Rosso (in Italian). Retrieved November 4, 2025.
12. Latini, Antonio (1692). Lo scalco moderna (in Italian). pp. 428.
13. Cesari 2022, Chapter 6 - The era of timbales.
14. Cesari 2022, Chapter 6 - Francesco Leonardi' s revolution.
15. Cesari 2022, Chapter 6 - Naples and Tomatoes.
16. F, M (1828). La Cucina Casereccia (in Italian). Naples: Presso Sav. Giordano. p. 31.
17. MacAllen 2022, pp. 76–77.
18. Cesari 2022, Chapter 6 - Innovation and conservatism.
19. Kummer, Corby (June 1999). "Red Sauce Revisited". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 4, 2025.
20. Cesari 2022, Chapter 6 - opening.
21. Cesari 2022, Chapter 6 - Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
22. Riley, Gillian (2007). The Oxford Companion to Italian Food. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 263, 432. ISBN 978-0-19-860617-8.
23. Fasulo Rak, Maria Giovanna (1995). La Cucina Napoletana in Cento Ricette Tradizionali. Rome: Newton. ISBN 88-8183-174-0.
24. MacAllen 2022, p. 78.
25. Parasecoli, Fabio (2004). Food culture in Italy. Food culture around the world. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 116. ISBN 0-313-32726-2.
26. Branco & Mohr 2023, p. 59.
27. Schwartz 1998, p. 250.
28. Spieler 2018, pp. 197–199.
29. Schwartz 1998, p. xix.
30. Piazzesi, Elisabetta; Giardinetto, Salvatore (1998). Cucina Napoletana [Neapolitan cuisine] (in Italian). Florence, Tuscany: Bonechi. p. 112. ISBN 88-8029-896-8.
31. MacAllen 2022, pp. 76–78.
32. MacAllen 2022, pp. 76–81.

Sources

• Schwartz, Arthur (1998). Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-018261-X.
• Spieler, Marlena (2018). A Taste of Naples: Neapolitan Culture, Cuisine, and Cooking. London: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442251267.
• Cesari, Luca (2022) [2021 (in Italian)]. The Discovery of Pasta: A History in Ten Dishes. Translated by Bishop, Johanna (English ed.). London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-78816-939-4.
• MacAllen, Ian (2022). Red Sauce: How Italian Food became American. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-6234-7.
• Branco, Patrícia; Mohr, Richard (2023). "Odore di Napoli: Normativity from Objects and Smells". In Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, Andreas; Mandic, Danilo; Nirta, Caterina; Pavoni, Andrea (eds.). SMELL. Law and the Senses. London: University of Westminster Press. ISBN 978-1-915445-13-1. JSTOR jj.9474307.4.

External links

• Preparation of Neapolitan ragù (in Italian)