Genovese sauce
![]() Genovese sauce with candele pasta served at the Villa Cimbrone in Ravello, Campania, Italy | |
Type | Sauce |
---|---|
Place of origin | Italy |
Region or state | Campania |
Created by | Genovese immigrants |
Invented | 15th or 16th centuries |
Main ingredients | Onion |
Ingredients generally used | Beef, veal or pork |
Genovese sauce is a slow-cooked, onion and meat sauce associated with Italy's Campania region, especially Naples — typically served with paccheri, ziti or candella pasta — and sprinkled with grated cheese.
Recipes for Genovese vary and may be prepared with inexpensive cuts of beef, pork, veal or sausage — but typically share and emphasize slow-cooked onions. A Genovese sauce is always tomato-less.[citation needed] Recipes may cite the ramata di Montoro, a yellow onion with copper-colored skin.[1]
Likely introduced to Naples from the northern Italian city of Genoa during the Renaissance, Genovese has since become associated with Italy's South, and especially Campania.
History[edit]
Despite its name, which means "in the style of Genoa," Genovese sauce is a principal pasta sauce of Naples and an important part of its culinary history, having been introduced to the city in the 15th or 16th centuries.[2][3] The sauce may have been brought by Genovese immigrants or merchants, at a time when Genoa and Naples were two of Italy's most important ports.[2][4] It could also be referring to its inventor's name, since Genovese is a widespread surname in Campania. Genovese sauce is now unknown beyond Campania.[5]
The recipe's onions may reflect a French influence, resembling Boeuf à la mode.[2] During the mid 19th century, ‘Salmon in Hollandaise and Genovese sauce’ was served in the Grand Véfour restaurant of the Palais-Royal in Paris as a luxury dish.[6]
Genovese sauce is not to be confused with Pesto from Genoa and Liguria, nor with Salsa Genovese, a red wine and vegetable condiment for fish,[7] nor with the sauce génevoise from Lake Geneva, again served with fish.
Preparation[edit]
The sauce is prepared by sautéing either beef or veal with onions, and slowly cooking for two to ten hours.[2][4][8] The onions are typically accompanied by minced carrots and celery in what is known as a soffritto.[2][3][4][8][9]
The slow cooking of the onions is especially important for the sauce's flavor,[10] and is facilitated by incremental additions of white wine, stock, or both.[2][4] The sauce and accompanying pasta can be served with the meat from the sauce or separately, garnished with tomatoes, and topped with pecorino.[3][8] Genovese is typically served with the large, cylindrical pasta, Paccheri, but also rigatoni, ziti or candele — all favored because their shape can hold the sauce.[2][3]
Ingredients for 4 servings[edit]
Meat 600 g, golden onions 1 kg, carrots 60 g, celery 60 g, olive oil.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "La Genovese". The Grand Wine Tour. August 1, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g Seed, Diane (2012). The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces. Random House. pp. 137–8.
- ^ a b c d May, Tony (2005). Italian Cuisine: The New Essential Reference to the Riches of the Italian Table. Macmillan. pp. 31–32.
- ^ a b c d Licino, Hal. "The Greatest Pasta Sauce You've Never Tasted". Hubpages. Retrieved 23 July 2013.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Asimov, Eric (28 August 2002). "Restaurants: the cooking of Naples, pure and simple". The New York Times.
- ^ Kingston, Ralph (2012). Bureaucrats and Bourgeois Society: Office Politics and Individual Credit in France 1789-1848. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 141.
- ^ Plotkin, Fred (1997). Recipes from Paradise: Life & Food on the Italian Riviera. Little, Brown and Company. p. 86. ISBN 0316710717.
- ^ a b c Alberts, Bonnie. "Cooking with Giuseppe – Paccheri alla Genovese". Retrieved 23 July 2013.
- ^ Schwartz, Arthur (1998). Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania. HarperCollins. p. 4.
- ^ Rosentals, John (31 May 1990). "THE Sheraton Hobart has added more variety to the theme nights it has been running in the hotel's Gazebo Restaurant". Hobart Mercury.