Priest-stranglers in Neapolitan Meat Sauce

Vic Chandler

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 20:24:44 GMT

Great recipe - thanks...

I will try it after I retire later this year - can"t wait !

Vic

fx

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:42:07 GMT

Matthew, you would need either a larger pan or to proceed in several batches.

matthew

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:57:07 GMT

would it be possible to make this sauce in a (much) larger quantity. I have concerns that the tomato paste would not caramelize properly if i attempted to double or quadruple the ingredients.

matthew

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:33:08 GMT

what do i do with the pig roast when i am done cooking?

fx

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 23:12:26 GMT

Glad this worked for you David!

David

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 19:09:08 GMT

I made this sauce...cooked it for the whole 7 hours, and i nearly strangled myself eating it. It has the most delicate flavour. Slow food is king. Take pleasure seriously! Thanks.

Laura

Mon, 4 May 2009 17:12:04 GMT

Hi There
Can someone help me please.... at what point do you add the Pork Ribs? - do they go into the mixer with the bacon and ham at the start? - or do they go into the pot whole at a later stage?

fx

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:04:55 GMT

Mike, sorry for the late answer. Yes, you do need to render the fat or else add olive oil otherwise the ground meat with burn. Many people fry the garlic in oil, then remove the garlic and throw it away, since much flavor has been passed to the oil. Normally I don"t include water in the ingredient list unless it is a recipe meant for desert explorers. Have fun!

Siddhartha

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:51:09 GMT

Xavier,

You mentioned about La cucina napoletana in Italian. Would you have recommendations on Italian cookbooks in English? More specifically ones on Neapolitan cooking

Regards
Siddhartha

Mike Griska

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 07:44:22 GMT

There is nothing better than a slow cooked ragu. I have been making a Bolognese ragu for years. It"s a labor of love but well worth it. Your presentation is excellant. I will try to make this recipe soon. I also enjoyed reading all the comments. Very thoughtful. I have a few questions, etc. on the recipe. The pork fat is not shown in the ingredient picture. I have been using salt pork for years and assume this is OK. The directions did not indicate to render the pork fat before adding the ground meat. I assume this is correct? Do you brown the garlic and remove it from the oil prior to adding the ground meat or grind it together with the meat? Browning the garlic and removing it sounds correct. The 2C of water are not on the ingredient list or in the ingredients picture. Not an important point. The comment to add pork skin in phase two is something we do all the time. Rolling it up with spices and tying it is a brilliant suggestion. The meat stacked in the picture looks like panchetta or guanciale on top, thick sliced boiled ham or ham steak in the middle and prosciutto on the bottom. Your ingredient list calls for bacon? I do not see it. Enough of my picky comments! Great recipe, great presentation and narrative. Kudos chef. I can"t wait to read more of your recipes.

fx

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:59:02 GMT

Grazio, welcome to FXcuisine, you must be our youngest reader so far and already well versed into Italian cooking as I can see! If you had a complete recipe for the Sunday Gravy, including some details as to the part of Italy the people who cook this came from originally, I"d be very interested. Thanks and good luck for your future career as a chef!

Grazio

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:17:24 GMT

Hello fx,

I am an aspiring chef. I am 13 and i cook every meal in my home. I love this website and i thought i should finally comment. This dish is very similar to a dish we have here in the states. What we have here is called Sunday Gravy. You put pork chops, braciole, sausage and meatballs. Put in San Marzano tomatoes and simmer all day. You should really try it

fx

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:51:54 GMT

Jarrett, thanks for stepping out of the digital woodwork and into the the comments section! You could, if nobody was looking, add a very tiny wee bit of sugar if your sauce is too tart, but I find it rarely necessary. Just taste it by the end and make a judgement call to correct the balance. Good luck and have fun!

Jarrett

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:23:02 GMT

Hello,

I"ve been following your website for about 7-8 months now and your combination of recipes plus macro photos is amazing. You do amazing work.
I appreciate all of your napolitana sauces and recipes however doesn"t the simmering for 7 hrs make these sauces too acidic from the tomatoes? Is there anything you do to counteract this? I just don"t like adding sugar to my sauces...let me rephrase that...I will absolutely never add sugar to my sauces.

Thanks

Jarrett

fx

Tue, 6 May 2008 13:54:17 GMT

Karine, bonjour et merci pour ta visite! Tu peux faire les gnocchis avec un oeuf, des bonnes pommes de terres bien farineuses et aussi peu de farine qu"il faudra pour qu"ils tiennent. Il me semble que tu pourrais pr�parer la p�te la veille et faire les gnocchis le jour m�me, mais je ne te recommanderais pas de les pr�cuire. Le plus long est de faire cuire les patates et de les peler, le reste est facile et rigolo, tu peux m�me demander � tes invit�s de venir t"aider � les mettre en forme, �a leur fera une soir�e vraiment m�morable!

Karine

Tue, 6 May 2008 08:34:59 GMT

Francois-Xavier,
Hier, j"ai fait la sauce rag� (qui en passant �tait succulente) ainsi que les gnocchis que j"ai pr�pare � la derni�re minute. Je me demandais si c"�tait possible de pr�parer les gnocchis � l"avance. Si oui, combien de temps et est ce que c"est diff�rent si je met un �uf ?
Merci et mille fois bravo pour ton site!

fx

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:39:01 GMT

Fred, I"m so glad you tried my recipe! You can definitely reheat the gnocchis with a little butter in a saucepan, this will add a little crispiness. If you parboil them again they might become soggy.

Fred

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:05:41 GMT

Great recipe! Worth the time. I tempered the excess gnocchis in an ice bath. They can be kept in fridge for 2 days and re-heated as needed.

fx

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:58:04 GMT

Leila, I now have made a print version accessible from a link right below the title of every article. No pictures, no ads - just the text.

fx

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:21:10 GMT

Leila I will make some changes to enable picture-free printing. That will be best for everyone"s environmental karma I suppose!

leila karlslund

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 06:57:47 GMT

Is there a way to print this recipe without the very large (and beautiful) pictures? My son cooked this ragu yesterday and tried in vain to print just the text. Instead it took 18 pages, because the size of the illustrations couldn"t be reduced or avoided.

Leila Denmark

Thu, 7 Feb 2008 08:42:49 GMT

I made it yesterday and cooked it as recommended the full seven hours. The result was stunning. The last five hours, while the ragu simmered, was no trouble at all - just the occational stir.

Cynthia

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:26:40 GMT

Another on my list to try.. I often make a bolognese ragu that "only" takes 4 hours. ;-)You talk about "pureeing" the potatoes with a "grinder" (maybe you mean a food mill). I"ve never made potato gnocchi but here I would try using a potato ricer (a two-handled gadget with a plunger that pushes the potato through small holes, with the resulting product resembling cooked rice). No lumps! I"ve never had good luck with the food mill and potatoes.Joe, in Italian there are related transitive verbs with the same root. So, to "strozzare" someone is indeed to strangle them. To "strozzarsi" means to strangle (yourself) on something, i.e., choke. That"s why the literal translation may sound odd to Anglo ears. Of course, if you"re the one serving the priest, you"re indirectly guilty of the strangling! I hadn"t heard of any particular priest being the victim.. I had gathered that priests were often viewed as "golosi" (greedy, gluttons.. perhaps due to their restrictions from other vices) hence they could easily choke while (quickly) eating such thick, chewy morsels. In other parts of Italy the same name, strozza/strangolapreti, is used for a number of flour-based pasta forms as well (no potato), or even for large "gnudi", which are ricotta/spinach dumplings. There"s no one canonical (wink) "strozzapreti" recipe.

bill

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:49:35 GMT

Oh, one question - there is no cheese in the photo, or in the description. Is this dish not traditionally served with grated cheese?

bill

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:46:44 GMT

I made the gnocchi today - they were delicious with pesto for lunch. I will make the ragu this Saturday for guests Sunday night. I"ll let you know how it goes. There is a local firm (Fatted Calf, here in San Francisco) and a national firm (Niman Ranch) that make guanciale. I will serve your fire-roasted peppers as a first course.

joe

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 02:45:14 GMT

Looks fantastic; I will try the recipe soon.Just a minor point of English: a "priest strangler" would be a person who grabs a priest by the neck and squeezes until the priest dies. A gnoccho which gets stuck in a priest"s esophagus, causing him to asphyxiate would be called a "priest choker".

lokimikoj

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:44:28 GMT

Hi all! Wow!!! Your site is beautiful!! I love the artwork.

Kelly

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:39:48 GMT

I absolutely love your site. I just happened upon it tonight and have bookmarked it. I will most definitely try some of your recipes. They are unique, explained well and are funny, too! This is the best "find" I"ve come across in months! Thank you!

yotixon

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:11:39 GMT

Hi One of the best locations I"ve come across lately!!! Definately a permanent bookmark! Would you please also visit my site?

likopinko

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:18:20 GMT

Hello So interesting site, thanks! G"night

sopitikoj

Sat, 8 Sep 2007 08:56:14 GMT

Hello Very good site. Thanks for author!G"night

fx

Mon, 3 Sep 2007 11:26:29 GMT

Thank you Lindsey, you can definitely transfer it to a crockpot, have a look at my last article "Pasta for the Sopranos" where I do the rag� just like this. A delicious dish indeed!

Lindsey

Mon, 3 Sep 2007 10:58:29 GMT

Hello! My friend told me about your food blog, and although I haven"t gotten a chance to try any of the recipes, they are beautiful! And the pictures are mouth-watering as well. I was wondering, would it be possible to transfer the sauce to a crock pot for the 7-hour simmering stage? Thank you!

fx

Mon, 7 May 2007 09:50:31 GMT

Ciao Giovanni, thank you so much for your comments. I definitely have to redo this recipe with better ingredients and need to add your pigskin parcel.
Grazie per la tua visita!

Giovanni

Mon, 7 May 2007 04:31:42 GMT

Bravissimo! Your blog is brilliant. Well constructed, well designed and beautifully articulated. The photographs are excellent. You make each of your gastronomic "cases" compelling!A good ragu is indeed to die for. An addition to the sauce which always seems to enhance the "body" and mouthfeel is a small parcel of pigskin sprinkled amply with salt, parsely, garlic and chilli; rolled up and tied with string and allowed to cook in second half of the construction. It imparts more divinity to a regal sauce. Thank you for your efforts and for sharing.Tanti Auguri

fx

Thu, 8 Mar 2007 00:08:51 GMT

Christopher, thanks for your message.
The meat to be used according to Bugialli is beef rump roast which you need to tie up like a salami. But the authentic recipe calls for either a "prime cut of veal or pork" ("Primo taglio di vaccina o di maiale") which you need to lard with tiny pieces of prosciutto and then wrap and tie up with parsley sprigs and slices of pancetta. You also add 3 pork ribs no matter what meat you used for the roast. I hope this helps!

Christopher dePoali

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 15:28:40 GMT

Hello again: Regarding the "large piece of pig " as you described it,
would you have a preferred part of the animal to use & preferred
mixture of herbs to season it with? Merci pour votre attention / Vielen Dank f�r Ihre Aufmerksamkeit- Chris

fx

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 08:55:21 GMT

Christopher, nowadays many people do not use the big chunk of pig when making this sauce. Basically you have to take a large piece of pig and wrap it with bacon and herbs and tie it up. I didn"t do this here and hope to redo this recipe to show how it"s done.

Christopher DePaoli

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:08:36 GMT

Hello- Your recipe looks very good. Is the cut of meat you"re
describing as a "pig roast" typically called a "pork loin" in the U.S.
or Canada (i.e., by what other name might a "pig roast" be called?)
Please advise, thank you- Chris.