Napolitan Ragu

Hi folks! We had company coming over this past weekend and I really wanted to impress them, so I decided to make a fairly involved but incredibly, incredibly delicious dish. I originally found out about this dish by watching a random episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. He was in Napoli and the restaurant they were supposed to film at, for whatever reason, cancelled on them. So, his tour guide insisted that they come to his mother's house for dinner and this is what she made. I had to piecemeal this recipe together based on looking at how her Ragu looked in the show and different recipes I found, so this is sort of a conglomeration recipe. In any event, on with the show!

Step 1: Ingredients

Italian Sausage - spicy and sweet
Pork Ribs
1 Large can of tomato sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
6 fresh tomatoes
1 bulb of garlic
1 medium yellow onion
Fresh basil
Oregano
Chicken Stock

Step 2: Roast the Meat!

In a large baking dish, lay out the pork ribs as shown.

Squeeze half a link of the sausage out of its casing to make the meatballs. The end. No filler, no bullcrap, just pure, delicious Italian sausage meatballs.

Put both in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes and you'll get this:

and this:

Step 3: Garlic and Onion

Finely chop the medium yellow onion, then peel and roughly chop the bulb of garlic.

Step 4: Saute time

Pour the runoff oil/meat juice from your roasted meat in to a stock pot, then heat it on medium high for sauteing. Once it's up to temperature, toss in the onion first. Let it saute until the onion is translucent and starts to brown a little, then toss in the garlic:

 

Step 5: Tomato Paste

Once the garlic starts to release its aroma, add the small can of tomato paste and continue to stir and saute it until it looks like this:

Step 6: Tomato Sauce and Chicken Stock

Add the large can of tomato sauce and a box of chicken stock, then stir everything together.

Step 7: Tomatoes

Quarter the tomatoes and then toss them in:

Step 8: Spices

Give it a healthy dusting of Oregano, then add two bay leaves:

Stir it all together:

Then add the meatballs:

Then add the roast pork ribs:

Stir it all together and add about this much fresh basil:

Then cover it, put the burner on simmer and forget about it for 3 hours. You may want to check on it every now and again to make sure it isn't getting too thick. If it does thicken too much, just add a bit more chicken stock to thin it out.

Step 9: The Taste Test

Once it starts to look a bit like this, taste it to see if it needs salt. If it does, add some and then taste again until its flavor really shines.

and here we are, a bowl of Napolitan Ragu garnished with a fresh basil leaf!

This dish goes amazingly well served over Ziti Rigati and with Italian bread (of course).