Rigatoni alla Genovese

For Boiling Rigatoni

1. Take a deep pot.
2. Add 5 to 6 glasses of water into the pot.
3. Add salt and cooking oil into the pot.
4. Bring the water to boil and add pasta rigatoni into the pot.
5. Let it boil until it is al Dante.
6. Take it off the heat, drain the hot water and run it through cold water.
7. Set it aside until it is needed for assembling.

For the Meat Sauce

1. Take a deep pot with a lid and heat up oil in it.
2. Add the cut beef into the pan.
3. Fry it at medium-high heat until it releases some juices.
4. Add a pinch of salt into it to speed up the cooking process.
5. Turn the heat back to medium and cook it for at least half an hour until the beef turns brown and all water is dried up from the pot.
6. After 15 to 20 minutes, add chopped celery and carrot into the pot.
7. Add salt and freshly ground pepper into the pot as well.
8. Mix everything well and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes at medium heat.
9. After 15 minutes, add tomato paste, bay leaf and a glass of white wine into the pot.
10. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
11. Then add sliced onion into the pot.
12. At this point, the pot should be full to the brim with onion.
13. Cover the pot and leave the sauce to cook on low heat.
14. After an hour the onion should have settled down into the pot. Give it a stir, cover it again and leave it to simmer for the next 8 to 10 hours until the meat and the onion are completely blended together. Stir it after every couple of hours to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
15. After almost 10 hours, the meat should completely blend with onions and your delicious meat sauce should be ready.
16. You can refrigerate this sauce for at least a week.
17. So, whenever you need it, you can just make rigatoni, heat up the sauce and use it.

For Assembling

1. Add the boiled rigatoni into the sauce and cook for a couple of minutes so the pasta can absorb the delicious juices of the sauce.
2. Now pour out a dish full, garnish it with parsley leaves and grated parmesan cheese to serve hot!

Trivia

• Rigatoni alla Genovese translates to pasta sauce in the style of Genoa. This is a bit strange because this sauce was invented in Naples!

Despite the fact that it is one of the simplest sauces to cook, it is also one of the slowest ones as it takes at least 8 to 10 hours to simmer into its true form.