Priest-stranglers in Neapolitan Meat Sauce

Keywords:	Pasta ¦ Italian Cuisine ¦ Gnocchi ¦ Homemade Pasta ¦ Traditional ¦ Neapolitan Cuisine ¦ Seriously Slow Food ¦ Ragù (Italian meat sauce)
Translations:	Español
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These gnocchis are so good that a priest choked to death eating them in the 18th century. Since then, Napolitans call them strangolapreti or strozzapreti - litterally 'priests-stranglers'.

But the gnocchis are only half the story. What really makes them a dish you wake up at night for is the diabolical ragù, a tomato meat sauce that takes 7 hours to cook. Such a treat!

Ragù napoletano
400gr double or triple tomato concentrate
800gr pig roast or ribs
1 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
150gr chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, crushed
50gr pancetta or guanciale
100gr prosciutto (ham)
50gr bacon
100gr pig fat
salt and pepper

(See below for strangolapreti/gnocchi recipe)

Grind down very finely the prosciutto, bacon and ham. Napolitans will think using an electric grinder for this is a monstrosity but if you don't have a hand meat grinder that will give you good results. You do need a very fine grind, no chunk should exceed the size of a small green pea.

Heat the fat in a large pot with a thick bottom and add the ground meat.

Let the meat color under medium heat for about 10 minutes, then add the chopped onions and parsley.

Once the onion is soft, add the pig roast. You normally should tie some of the pancetta around the roast with a string.

Wait until the roast is colored on every side.

Increase the heat to high. Add the wine gradually, making sure you don't cool down the sauce too much. Wait until the wine is almost completely evaporated before adding more.

In traditional ragù recipes, this first phase takes about 2 hours. If, like me, you don't have all day, I guess you can squeeze it in about 40 minutes.

Now starts the most important part of this recipe. You will gradually add tomato concentrate - invariably coming from a can - and let it become very dark under the high heat before adding any more. This operation is called pincer in French, and gives the tomato a unique caramelized taste.

Let the sauce become a dark burgundy before adding two more tablespoons.

If the meat is already cooked you can remove it and keep it covered in a separate dish. Proceed until you run out of tomato. This can take quite a long time and you can't leave the pot at any time!

Add two cups water, mix well and let the ragù simmer on the lowest flame for at least an hour but up to 7 hours if you can. Make sure there is enough water so it won't stick and mix regularly. This process will make a smooth, magical mix out of all the ingredients, resulting in a tomato sauce unlike any you have ever tasted. Definitely worth doing right.

In Napoli, some people add a stick of cinammon, or replace the red wine by a sweet white wine. My next ragù will have a serrano chili and cinammon. I recommend you try the traditional recipe once before adding your own touch.

The strangolapreti

Strangolapreti (Napolitan gnocchis)
1kg starchy potatoes
2 cups regular flour
salt
nutmeg

Boil the potatoes with their skins on, or steam them without their skin, until they are soft but not mushy. Purée them in the finest grinder you have. Chunks and little black spots are not cool and they will show. If you don't believe me please check my pictures carefully and you'll see what I mean.

Add the flour until you get a smooth paste, not too soft. You can add an egg but it's not really necessary. The more flour, the harder and heavier they will be. In Napoli in the 18th century they made it with flour only - great if you need to choke a priest but not very light. Potato-based gnocchis are much superior and used everywhere in Italy nowadays.

My gnocchi dough is not very smooth and is quite chunky. Use a finer grinder than I did.

Cut a small piece of dough and roll it on lightly floured work space. The roll should have the same diameter as the base of your medium finger.

Cut pieces of dough from the roll about the size of a knuckle of your thumb.

If the cooking time makes the ragù, it's he shapethat makes the gnoccho. Hastily made gnocchi have no shape - they look like small barrels. By pressing each gnoccho gently on a fine grater or a bamboo mat, you will make it thinner, curved on one side and marked with little cavities on the other. This will result in a lighter gnoccho to which a much larger quantity of ragù will stick. They are also more appealing to the eye.

These are not the nicest gnocchis ever, but I made another batch the next day with much nicer results. Both tasted the same, so good luck!

Bring salter water to a high boil and don't add oil no matter what your daddy told you. Prepare the gnocchis on a plate or in a folded towel.

Pour all your gnocchis in the boiling water at the same time. Increase the heat to maximum to compensate the temperature drop due to the cold gnocchis and don't cover. Really don't. Covering a pot of cooking pasta is said to be enough ground for a divorce in Naples.

Your gnocchis will be cooked when they come to the surface. Eat one to make sure. Using a slotted spoon, take them out and put them in a strainer. Don't, please don't, pour down gnocchis and water into a strainer. This will break the gnocchis and overcook them and just shows poor taste in a kitchen.

Heat the serving plates with a ladleful of hot cooking water, shake the gnocchis in the strainer so excess water falls off and put them carefully in the plates.

Finally, the gorgeous strangolapreti are ready to serve in the luscious, velvety dark red ragù.

This really is a fantastic dish, well worth the effort. The recipe is for 4 large portions or 8 as a first course. You can definitely make the ragù the day before, keep it in the fridge and remove the tiny spots of fats that will come up on top the next day.

My recipe comes from the monumental La cucina napoletana by Jeanne Caròla Francesconi, a monumental 750 pages long tome about every traditional napolitan dish and its history. It has a long, passionate discussion of the ragù, its origins, cultural importance in Naples and accepted variations. If you read Italian this is a must. Although it has no pictures, it still is one of my 10 favorite cookbooks, and I have many.

Oh - the pig roast. Well, you can serve it a second course or in an entirely different meal. It only serves to impart porky flavor to the sauce and is never eaten with the sauce.

Good luck and let me know how you fare with this dish!