← Nouns Cooking · Italian

Ingredients

• 1 kg beef chuck, in 3–4 large pieces
• 1.5 kg golden onions, thinly sliced
• 1 Carrot, finely chopped
• 1 celery stick, finely chopped
• 60 g pancetta or salami, finely chopped
• 5 tbsp Olive oil
• 150 ml dry white wine
• 500 g ziti (broken by hand) or paccheri
• 60 g Parmesan or pecorino, grated
• Salt
• Black pepper

Method

1. Warm the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat and fry the pancetta for 3–4 min. Add the carrot and celery and cook for 5 min until soft.
2. Season the beef, add it to the pot and brown it on all sides for 8–10 min.
3. Pile in the onions with a good pinch of salt; they will look like far too many. Cover, turn the heat to low and cook for 3 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. Whenever the bottom starts to catch, add a splash of the wine. The onions will collapse into a thick, creamy, golden sauce.
4. Uncover for the last 30 min and keep stirring until the sauce turns a deep amber colour. Season with pepper.
5. Lift out the beef; serve it sliced as a second course, or shred some back into the sauce.
6. Cook the pasta until al dente, drain and toss it with plenty of sauce and the grated cheese. Serve with more cheese and black pepper.

Tips

• Despite the name it is pure Neapolitan; nobody quite knows how Genoa got into it.
• The sauce freezes beautifully, so it is worth making the full batch.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Memorie di Angelina Pasta Grammar