Neapolitan ragu is a great alternative to the heavier and more complicated ragu bolognese. It’s all about tomatoes and pork. A bit of veal and some white wine. Maybe an onion. Simple.
No garlic, no basil, no oregano. No secret ingredients. Just tomato and meat flavour. Clean. Pure. Delicious. Try it. You’ll be surprised how good easy tastes.
It goes pretty much like any other ragu. Brown the meat with some onion, add some wine. Reduce. Add tomatoes and simmer. For hours.
This is slow food. You can’t make it fast food. Make sure you have time when you start this. Or make it the day before. It reheats fine.
This isn’t in your face rage. Neapolitan ragu flavours are lighter. There’s plenty of flavour. The sausage sees to that. But it isn’t heavy. No beef. No beefy taste.
Neapolitan ragu needs good quality ingredients
There’s nowhere to hide in this recipe. The simplicity means every ingredient has to pull its weight. So buy good quality pork. The best Italian sausage you can get.
Go see your butcher. They will fix you up. This isn’t a place to use up those Johnsonville brats you have in the back of the freezer.
Make sure you use good quality canned tomatoes. Tomatoes are the star ingredient. Don’t skimp. San Marzano tomatoes are a good choice if you can get them.
Prepping your tomatoes is a nice touch. Buy whole tomatoes and pass them through a food mill. If you don’t have a food mill you can substitute passata. Won’t be quite the same though.
If you are going to use passata definitely try to get the best you can. Lousy passata makes lousy sauce. Did I mention there is nowhere to hide? No heavy handed seasoning here.
neapolitan ragu
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 10 oz ground pork
- 10 oz ground veal
- 10 oz mild Italian sausage - removed from casing and crumbled
- 1 large onion - finely diced
- 3/4 cup white wine
- 2 28 ounce cans whole tomatoes - I really like genuine San Marzano tomatoes here
- 1 tsp salt - more to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a pot large enough to hold all the ingredients.
- Add the onion, veal, pork and sausage and cook, uncovered, until all the liquid from the meat has evaporated. This takes about 10-15 minutes. You are evaporating liquid. You will be left with a bit of fat in the pan. That’s OK. You can’t boil off fat. At least I can’t…
- Add the white wine and boil until almost dry, about 5 minutes.
- Pass the tomatoes along with their juices through a food mill to remove seeds and membranes.
- Add the pureed tomatoes and the salt.
- Cover loosely and simmer 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
- Adjust salt to taste.
Notes
Nutrition
Authentic pho ga takes some time. Takes some attention to detail. But it’s worth it. This is one of the world’s greatest chicken noodle soups.
I’m a bit of a pho addict. OK – maybe not just a bit. Card carrying member of pho lovers anonymous here. Now you know.
I read the Lucky Peach Pho issue cover to cover. That’s 160 pages dedicated to pho. The definitive pho manifesto. As far as I know, anyway.
This recipe is based on the Lucky Peach recipe. It has some glebekitchen embellishments but it’s in the ballpark.
I’ve also read about 100 recipes online. Some are more authentic than others. Some have me wondering if the author has ever eaten pho.
Are you getting that I am a pho addict yet?
