What it is
The great Campanian long-cooked tomato-and-meat sauce used to dress pasta, with the meat eaten separately as another course.
Origin place card
The official page places the ragù across Campania while calling it emblematic of Naples and the Sunday meal.
Verified history
The source describes it as tied to Neapolitan Sunday lunch and as an emblem of Campanian food heritage. Treat this as source-supported tradition/history from Regione Campania — Ragù napoletano; the current evidence does not independently establish a founder, precise origin date, first attestation, or archival origin beyond that source framing.
Local hypothesis
Its power is sequential: one pot makes the pasta course, the meat course and the smell that defines Sunday.
Local legend / oral tradition
The atlas should avoid theatrical clichés unless separately sourced; the verified core is Sunday lunch, low fire and meat-sauce architecture.
Ingredients
Beef locena/shoulder, pork tracchie, optional sausages, frattaglia sausages, polpette, braciole, onion, celery, carrot, lard or olive oil, red wine, tomato concentrate/conserva, tomato passata, basil. Source-supported detail: La carne viene consumata a parte.
Method
Brown meat in a low-heat soffritto, add wine gradually, use tomato concentrate/conserva and later passata, and cook very slowly; serve sauce with pasta and meat apart. Source-supported detail: Descrizione delle metodiche di lavorazione, condizionamento, stagionatura si utilizzano vari tipi di carne, anche di specie diverse: le più utilizzate sono la "locena" di manzo (corrispondente al taglio noto come "sottospalla" o "spalla" comunque tagli caratterizzati da presenza di grasso,
Ritual / calendar
Immancabili le braciole (una fetta piuttosto spessa di carne di "locena" su cui si pone un impasto di formaggio pecorino tritato, aglio, prezzemolo, pinoli ed uva passa, sale e pepe, e che viene arrotolata su sè stessa a formare un
Why travel for it
This is a flagship TIFA page and should be fielded with Sunday kitchens, not only restaurant plates.
Recreate-it pathway
Needs a full recipe-recovery dossier: braciole variants, pot material, pippiare/simmering language, timing and meat combinations.
Editorial warning
Official descriptive source supports the page seed. Do not promote to final tested recipe until household/fieldwork variant and quantities are recovered.
Fieldwork questions
Recover named local cooks, household variants, exact quantities, equipment, occasion, and where it is still served today.
Photo brief
Pot of ragù with visible meat, pasta dressed separately, braciola tied with cotton thread.