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Chef Francesco is from Sardinia, a beautiful island in the South of Italy. He has a background in cooking, having spent 7 years as a Chef in Italy, Australia and London. He is now a Senior Teaching Chef for some of the top cookery schools in London.

For Chef Francesco, being Italian, Italian cuisine is his passion. He has a developed, rustic Italian cooking style based on memories from his childhood – cooking with his Nonna, working on the farm and fishing with his Granddad.

All of Chef Francesco’s recipes are original, traditional and based on the best ingredients.

Italian food is one of the most beloved cuisines in the world. But, you don't need to go out to eat or travel to Italy to eat the real deal anymore. Learn how to make the most authentic, rustic Italian food in your home with this masterclass from Italian chef, Francesco Mattana.

In this episode of An Italian Journey, Chef Francesco makes a traditional Ragu' Napoletano. This dish hails from Napoli, and ragu together with the bolognese are symbols of traditional Italian cuisine.

Ragu' Napoletano is made from whole cuts of meat. This recipe is slow cooked for 5 hours, leaving it delicious and tender.  

Ingredients

  • 500g of pappardelle pasta (fresh)

  • 700g beef short ribs
  • 350g pork ribs
  • 350g plain sausage
  • 4 brown onions (chopped in petals or roughly chopped)
  • 500g of plum tomatoes (San Marzano is best)
  • ½ litre of vegetable stock
  • 1 tbsp of tomato paste
  • 200ml of red wine (we like to use Chianti)
  • Salt and pepper for seasoning
  • Olive oil
  • Parsley
  • Pecorino

Method

  1. Start warming up a big pot on a medium high heat (the bigger the better!)

  2. When your pot is nice and hot, carefully add 2 tbsp of olive oil.
  3. Start to sear all the meat.
  4. Starting with the beef short ribs, colour all the sides of it and then set it on the side out of the pot.
  5. In the same way, sear the pork ribs and sausage and set all the meat on the side outside of the pot.
  6. Bring your pot down to a medium heat and add 2 tbsp of olive oil if needed and all the chopped onions.
  7. Cook the onions until nice and caramelised - you want to see a lightly brown colour on them.
  8. At this point, once you have the onions nice and caramelised, bring the heat back to a medium high temperature and add the meat back into the pot with all the red wine.
  9. Let the wine evaporate for about 5 minutes then add the tomatoes straight into the pot with all the water.
  10. Give to the sauce a good stir then bring it to boil.
  11. When the ragu' starts to boil, put the heat down to a very low heat.
  12. Place a wooden spoon over the top of the pot. Then cover the pot with the lid (the wooden spoon will stop the lid from closing, allowing the steam to escape).
  13. Now relax! This process is very important - you don't have to do anything for the next 5-6 hours BUT you always need to keep an eye on your sauce.
  14. The ragu' should always make a very lightly boiling sound for the 5-6 hours, we would suggest that you stir the ragu' once every 45 minutes to stop the sauce sticking to the bottom of the pan. You don't want the sauce to be too wet as it's reducing, but you also don't want it to dry out completely after only one hour. The sauce needs to reduce slowly to let the flavours infuse.
  15. The ragu' will be ready when the sauce is a thick consistency, the water has all evaporated and the pork ribs and beef are falling off the bone.
  16. Lastly, try the ragu' and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper until you're happy.