Ziti alla Genovese

[Narrator] Welcome friends! Discover the exquisite simplicity of Naples with our "Genoese pasta". A humble dish but rich in flavors awaits you.

[Lulu] PIATTO™ friends Hello! I'm finally back and grandma Lulù is taking you to Naples today! A fabulous recipe because today we make "Genovese" a poor, very poor dish.

All you need is some onions, celery, a carrot and some meat. It is a white ragù, therefore without tomatoes; poor: because it is based on onions not meat. and speaking of meat I will use a "bell" (beef calf).

Otherwise you can choose pork, another piece of beef. . .

any type of meat you want, usually stew meat. The ratio of onions to meat is normally three to one. Now we get to work because we need to cut these onions.

. . In fact, instead of me crying, I'll make my assistant cry!

What a pain! Watching was very tiring! Now we cut the meat and then brown it.

Cut the meat into large pieces otherwise it would fall apart during cooking since the ragù must cook for at least 3 hours. It must simmer and not boil hard. Slow cooking!

Let's put a spoonful of lard because you know that once upon a time this was cooked with lard [Music] [Music] [Music] Perfect, now we'll deglaze it with half a glass of white wine. [Narrator] As for the origin of the name, there is a fascinating mystery; Was it perhaps the work of the Genoise cooks of Naples in the 15th century? Or the brainchild of an elusive Mr Genovese?

Another interesting theory is that of the Swiss mercenaries from the canton of Geneva stationed in Naples, great lovers of onions. We leave the answer to your imagination and don't forget to share it in the comments. [Lulu] Let's start cooking our beautiful ragù.

Let's sauté the carrot and celery. Now let's add the onion, which has made others cry, not me! It seems like a lot but you'll see soon it will reduce.

When it is wilted we will put the meat. When it's time to turn off the heat you will see that the ragù will have a hazelnut color and from its color you can tell that the ragù is ready. Let's put the [Music] meat.

We add the stock from the previous cooking of the meat, then add broth or water to cover. [Music] They'll be covered about an hour, then we check it, if necessary we'll add more cooking liquid but you'll see that it won't be necessary because the onions will draw out their water. Please remember, the ragù must simmer: boil slowly, slowly!

[Music] [Narrator] Three hours of cooking later, the "genovese" is ready! It has a beautiful hazelnut colour, the meat is very tender and can be cut with a spoon. Now let's transfer everything to the pan where we will finish cooking our pasta [Music].

[Lulu] Look at how the meat falls apart after all these hours of cooking. Clearly we don't need the knife, it cuts very well like that. The "Genovese" is ready and now let's think about the pasta.

We will cook traditional pasta or " Neapolitan ziti". These will be cut into three parts before cooking. We will finish cooking the pasta in this wonderful white onion ragù, the "Genoese" [Musica].

While waiting for the water for the pasta to boil, we break up these "ziti" which is also a pleasure! Anti-stress! the pasta is ready, let's drain it and sauté it in the pan together with the "Genovese".

[Music] [Music] A handful of pecorino cheese that will give a spicier, tastier taste. . .

what a dish! [Narrator] a dish admirable for its simplicity, a recipe that embraces humility in the choice of ingredients but dresses up like royalty on our palate. [Lulu] these forks are for you!

[Narrator] don't leave our Lulù alone to enjoy this delight;Try it yourselves! Share it and subscribe to PIATTO™ where excellent recipes are combined with breathtaking cinematography.