How to Make Italian Sunday Meat Sauce: Ragù alla Napoletana
Sundays in a lot of Italian households are all about the sauce. Every family has their own recipe, but it’s all about the process of letting it cook. Today I’m showing you how to make Ragù alla Napoletana, a sauce where the meat dictates the flavor and the meat cooks the sauce.
Learn how to make the classic Ragù alla Napoletana. Unlike a Bolognese which uses ground meat, a true Neapolitan Ragù is a labor of love made with large cuts of beef and pork. As I always say: You don’t cook this sauce; the meat cooks this sauce. The meat surrenders its fat and flavor into the tomatoes over four hours, creating something special.
It’s dark, it’s rich, and it’s the heart of a true Italian Sunday in Naples.
The Secrets to Success:
The Lard (Strutto): Using lard instead of oil gives the sauce an incomparable silkiness and depth.
The “Pippiare”: This is the Neapolitan word for the sound the sauce makes as it bubbles—a very low, slow simmer that creates that iconic “oil on top” finish.
Ingredients:
The Meats:
1.5 lbs Beef Chuck Roast (cut into fist size chunks)
1.5 lbs Beef Short Ribs
4 Pork Ribs
3 Sweet Italian Sausages (cut in half)
The Sauce Base:
3 jars (24 oz) Tomato Passata
2 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 Yellow Onion, chopped
1/2 cup Dry Red Wine
1 tbsp Lard (Strutto)
Salt & Black Pepper (to taste)
Water (for rinsing the jars)
Instructions:
1. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, melt the lard. Add the meat in small batches to allow the pan to retain its heat.
2. Add the chopped onion to the pot. Sauté until translucent and golden.
3. Pour in the red wine, scraping the bottom of the pot to release the fond. Allow the alcohol to evaporate completely.
4. Stir in the tomato paste. Mix it well and let it cook for a minute to deepen the color.
5. Pour in the 3 jars of passata. Add a little water to each jar, shake it up to get every bit of sauce, and add it to the pot.
6. Add the halved sausages into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Bring to a simmer, then drop the heat to the lowest setting. Cover the lid 3/4 of the way. Let it cook for 4 hours. Stir a few times to make sure nothing sticks.
8. You are looking for a deep, dark mahogany color and a thin layer of flavorful oil resting on the top.
The Authentic Experience:
For the full experience, serve this in two distinct courses:
The Primo: Boil your pasta (or Ziti/Paccheri/Rigatoni) until al dente. Take a separate pan, add several ladles of the Ragù, and toss the pasta directly in the sauce to bring it all together.
The Secondo: Serve the fall-apart meat and sausages on a separate platter as your main course.
⭐ Instructions:
0:00 The Meaning of Ragù alla Napoletana
0:35 Every Family has their version
1:10 Searing the meat
2:15 Why we don’t crowd the pan
3:40 Deglazing the flavor
4:20 “The Meat Cooks the Sauce”
5:50 Adding the Passata and Sausages
7:10 The 4-Hour Simmer (Pippiare)
8:05 Identifying the “Oil on Top”
8:45 Finishing the Rigatoni in the Pan
9:30 The Meat Platter (Secondo)
10:15 Sunday Dinner with Giovanni
Why You’ll Love This:
✅ Authentic Technique: No shortcuts. This is the real-deal Sunday Sauce.
✅ Fall-Apart Meat: After 4 hours, the beef and pork become incredibly tender and infused with tomato.
✅ The Soul of Naples: This isn’t just a recipe; it’s the centerpiece of an Italian Sunday that brings the whole family to the table.
💬Comment Below:
Every family has their own way of doing it! How does your family make their Sunday sauce? Tell me your traditions in the comments! 👇
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36 Comments
That looks soooo good man! 🤤 I have decent size a cast iron pot. Will I be able to cook the dish in the oven instead of on the stove? After I have browned the meat on a burner in the pot of course.
Interestingly our Sunday sauce used just bone-in chicken leg quarters, pork chops, and sausage, maybe because these were less expensive, not sure. But yeah, we (well, my dad) let that sauce simmer for 2 or 3 hours, and it was incredible!
Or a couple of tablespoons of raw sugar. Garlic and fresh basil would only add to the incredible flavour.
You cook like a Calabrese??? Your recipes are how my mother cooked. 😊🐨🦘🇦🇺
You're awesome, Chef!!❤❤❤
Looks great! We just made something similar right before Christmas just the two of us we got three meals out of it. I like your version a lot.
Thats a nice looking pot there, stylish like yourself.😉
Thank you Giovanni. EXACTLY like my nanna used to make every Sunday when I was growing up (no garlic, no herbs). Occassionally she would also had hot sausages. Sadly my nana is passed many years ago now and even more sadly I can no longer eat tomatoes due to some health issues. I guess I will resort to a ragu bianco – but nothing is the same as the tomato version you just made for us. Thanks again and keep up the great Italian cooking. We love it!
Watching this while the Italian meatloaf is in my oven with sweet potato chunks and mushrooms. This looks wonderful and my home smells great. Thank you Sir.
Tampa, FLA.
I use crisco more then oil better flavor.
This Sunday, meatballs and spaghetti. I'll save this for a holiday or special occasion. But I will be making it.
I water and shake out my jars. Never waste a drop! As you were saying it, I was thinking, “you need a bigger pot.” On Sunday you have to feed 15-20 family.
🫂
I remember so many Sundays, was like a feast. My mom cooking for us. My favorite was the various meats, but the braciole was my favorite, mom would use beef, cooking in the gravy turned so tender. As i grew older, I use veal stuffed with aspargus rolled up in Prosciutto. So many fond memories. ❤
My Grandma made this sauce every Sunday. She also did a side sauce (marinara) full of meatballs. Heaven!!! And everybody showed up!😍
My Sicilan father in law used to make a sauce with beef shoulder (because it was inexpensive) sliced into half inch thick pot roast size pieces browned on both sides and cooked in his sauce for hours. Pasta with the sauce and the meat on a platter. Nothing was ever better.
This meal with all the meat and fat is natural and 100 times healthier than all the processed crap everyone eats today. Nicely done. Of course now I'm starving. Thank you for the video.
Wondering why you didn’t fry the sausage!
Is this the infamous 'Red Lead' sauce?
Can’t wait to try this one out. Looks so good, but fairly simple to make. Thanks for sharing!
Greetings from Redondo Beach 🇺🇸🇺🇸These are real food you are making. Watching your video made me run to the store and get some beef and pork to make it. 🌷🌷
So good !
OMG! I would love to savor his meat and sauce❤❤❤ in my mouth. Not only will I slowly suck on his meat and all the juices from the meat. Oh my Heavenly Father ❤❤❤❤❤
Nice job Giovanni. Brings back great memories!😊.
Looks amazing!
Yummy Yummy, it is make my mouth watering 😋 That looks so good. Thank you for
sharing this recipe ❤
Dude love your work 👍
Ok. So let’s start with some corrections. Sauce is “sugo” in Italian. In English you can call it sauce or Ragú depending on what kind of sauce it is. But it’s never called “gravy.” That’s a brown sludge you put on turkey. Not what we make in Italy. Ragú allá Bolognese is cooked for 4-5 hours. But Ragú allá napolitana is cooked for 8 hours. That’s non-negotiable. It’s one of the differences between those two staples from their respective religions. You are correct, in Napoli families have different recipes. But they don’t differ much. You are missing some important ingredients that are not optional in our Ragú. You need to make two different braccioli. One from beef and one from pork skin/rind. After about 5-6 hours we typically remove the meat and let the sauce keep cooking. There’s a Neapolitan chef that has the complete traditional recipe on YouTube. I’ll attach the link so you can take a look. Us Neapolitans are very particular about our traditional recipes here. I’d love to see you make this recipe again, in the more traditional version. (And just a tip from me to you…. Don’t keep saying there’s no wrong way or wrong recipe. Every region is very jealous of their recipes and traditions and there’s absolutely a wrong way to make things. Just a tip)
Here’s the link. Hopefully you speak or understand Neapolitan. 😉
https://youtu.be/bNSR5k9Fb5I?si=oJgdBO1ejaLcChzE
People are moving away from eating tomato sauce type foods. It is very unhealthy. Tomatos are not what we need to be eating.
I love this sauce Giovanni. I make a Sunday sauce often but never cook it this long. Your method for sugo is real easy and looks so delicious. The only thing missing are the bracciolle. Greetings from Forest Hilss NY.
Are those thin tongs something just in the culinary world, or medical debakey forceps?
By the way, I dislike this new intrusive "hello! Why are you watching…" that is hard to escape when we want to make a comment or ask a question!
My grandma used to make it on Saturday afternoon and we ate it on sunday
I've been waiting for the perfect recipe to break in my new Le Creuset pot and I believe this is It!! 😎
My Neopolitian mother made sauce (we called it gravy) every Sunday with plenty of meat. My Sicilian father used to say Sunday is not Sunday unless we have macaroni and that’s what we did only one meal on a Sunday. We would eat about one o’clock and my mother served it just like you did. She didn’t put the leftovers away until later in the night but kept them on the stove so if we were hungry later in the day or at night we could help ourselves. The only thing she did different from you is that she used to skim the fat (oil) off the top of pot. I love watching you cook it reminds me so much of my mother and growing up Italian! ❤
It looks so good…just wondering why no garlic, parsley, basil?
I love this! My grandparents were from Cosenza and she made this every Sunday. She was a wonderful woman who never spoke much English, but had a wonderful heart. I’ll make this in honor of 2 humble people who took a chance on America so long ago. Thank you sir!
Excellent dish/recipe Giovanni! Going to make this on Superbowl Sunday 😋