{ "slug": "genovese", "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/", "name": "Genovese napoletana", "english": "Neapolitan beef and onion sauce, cooked down for hours", "aka": [ "genovese", "salsa genovese", "sugo alla genovese", "pasta alla genovese", "carne alla genovese", "Genovese sauce" ], "summary": "Onions cooked down for at least three hours with a piece of beef until they melt into a dense amber cream: the Neapolitan sauce for pasta, with the meat served as a second course, one of Campania's traditional food products.", "essentials": [ "A piece of beef cooked with one and a half times its weight in onions: 1.5 kg of onions to 1 kg of girello.", "A chopped base of onion, celery, carrot and lardo, in butter, lard and extra virgin olive oil.", "Dry white wine added a little at a time, then a glass of water and at least three hours, covered, on the lowest heat.", "Done when the meat is very tender and the onions have melted into a dense, amber cream.", "The sauce dresses pasta, or rice, with grated Parmigiano; the meat is eaten apart, as the second course." ], "diet": [], "region": { "slug": "campania", "name": "Campania", "url": "https://nonnario.com/regions/campania/" }, "place": "Napoli", "coords": [ 40.8518, 14.2681 ], "course": { "id": "sughi", "it": "Sughi", "en": "Sauces" }, "level": { "id": "tradition", "name": "Documented tradition", "it": "Tradizione documentata", "description": "A regional tradition documented in cookbooks and local practice, with no single official text.", "url": "https://nonnario.com/method/#level-tradition" }, "status": "checked", "published": "2026-11-03", "checked": "2026-11-03", "cooked": null, "pending": null, "provenance": { "by": "Neapolitan tradition", "reference": "Compared across 8 sources, listed below; this page publishes the most widely recognised version.", "year": null }, "sources": [ { "label": "Accademia Italiana della Cucina: salsa genovese as made in Naples, from its recipe collection (Italian)", "url": "https://accademia1953.it/it/ricette/ricetta/salsa-genovese" }, { "label": "Accademia Italiana della Cucina: maccheroni alla genovese as made in Naples, from its recipe collection (Italian)", "url": "https://accademia1953.it/it/ricette/ricetta/maccheroni-alla-genovese" }, { "label": "Accademia Italiana della Cucina: salsa genovese as made in Molise, from its recipe collection (Italian)", "url": "https://accademia1953.it/it/ricette/ricetta/salsa-genovese-0" }, { "label": "Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: genovese among Campania's traditional food products (PAT) (Italian)", "url": "https://agricoltura.regione.campania.it/Tipici/tradizionali/genovese.html" }, { "label": "GialloZafferano: genovese, editorial recipe for 4 (Italian)", "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Genovese.html" }, { "label": "Il Cucchiaio d'Argento: pasta alla genovese, a recipe for 4 (Italian)", "url": "https://www.cucchiaio.it/ricetta/pasta-alla-genovese/" }, { "label": "La Cucina Italiana: pasta alla genovese, a modern recipe for 6 (Italian)", "url": "https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/ricetta/primi/pasta-alla-genovese/" }, { "label": "USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Leftovers and Food Safety (archived copy of 29 May 2025)", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20250529160018/https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/leftovers-and-food-safety" } ], "story": [ "Genovese is a sauce of beef and onions from the city of Naples, made all over Campania, which lists it among its traditional food products. A great weight of onions cooks for hours with a piece of beef until it turns into a sweet, amber cream; the sauce dresses the pasta, and the meat is eaten apart. Despite its name, the dish is unknown in Genoa, and the accounts of the name differ. One takes it back to the fifteenth century, when crews of the Republic of Genoa lodged by the port of Naples, and to a Genoese meat dish called u tuccu; another, to cooks from Genoa working in Naples in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; others speak of Swiss mercenaries from Geneva, or of a cook from Geneva (génevois) in the kitchen of an aristocratic Neapolitan family; and one, to a group of Genoese who settled in the Spanish Quarters of Naples in the second half of the nineteenth century. Each is told as a possibility, and none settles it.", "There is no official recipe. We compared eight sources and publish the most widely recognised version: a whole piece of beef cooked with one and a half times its weight in chopped onions, over a base of celery, carrot and lardo in butter, lard and olive oil, with dry white wine and a glass of water, covered, on the lowest heat for at least three hours. The sources agree on beef, a great weight of onions, celery, carrot, white wine and hours of slow cooking, and on the sauce for pasta, most often ziti, with the meat kept for the second course. They differ on slicing or chopping the onions, on the fats, on the time and on when the wine goes in: many add it near the end, over a higher heat, to brown the sauce, and a few add a tomato or two. The quantities, the order of the work, the time and the signs of doneness are those of the version we publish; the size of a glass, the heat and length of each stage, when to season, the amount of pasta and the resting and slicing of the meat are our guide. If the sauce and the meat are not eaten at once, they go into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking, the limit of the food-safety guidance we follow." ], "serves": 6, "makes": null, "minutes": { "handsOn": 86, "cooking": 192, "resting": 10 }, "plan": "Allow about 5–6 hours, most of it unattended: about 40 minutes to chop and tie, about 45 minutes to brown the meat and add the wine, at least 3 hours of covered cooking on the lowest heat, with a stir and a turn of the meat every 20–30 minutes, then about 30 minutes for the pasta and the meat. Put the pasta water on about 20 minutes before the sauce is done. It can be made ahead: the sauce and the meat into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking, eaten within 3 days of cooking, and the sauce brought back to the boil before you dress the pasta.", "equipment": [ "Chef's knife and a large board (or a food processor, used in short pulses)", "Kitchen string", "Heavy casserole with a lid, about 28 cm across and holding about 6 l: earthenware, enamelled or tinned copper", "Wooden spoon, a carving fork and a sharp carving knife", "A small pan, for the sauce kept back for the meat", "A warm plate and aluminium foil, for resting the meat", "Large pot for the pasta and a colander", "Shallow containers and a probe thermometer, if you make it ahead" ], "ingredients": [ { "group": "For the sauce", "items": [ { "quantity": 1, "unit": "kg", "item": "beef girello (lacerto), in one piece", "note": "the eye of round", "text": "1 kg beef girello (lacerto), in one piece (the eye of round)", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": 1.5, "unit": "kg", "item": "onions", "note": "white, golden or copper-skinned", "text": "1.5 kg onions (white, golden or copper-skinned)", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": 2, "unit": "pc", "item": "celery sticks", "note": null, "text": "2 celery sticks", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": 3, "unit": "pc", "item": "carrots", "note": null, "text": "3 carrots", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": 50, "unit": "g", "item": "lardo (cured pork back fat)", "note": null, "text": "50 g lardo (cured pork back fat)", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": 100, "unit": "g", "item": "lard (strutto)", "note": null, "text": "100 g lard (strutto)", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": 50, "unit": "g", "item": "butter", "note": null, "text": "50 g butter", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": 1, "unit": "pc", "item": "glass of extra virgin olive oil", "note": "about 150 ml", "text": "1 glass of extra virgin olive oil (about 150 ml)", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": 2, "unit": "pc", "item": "glasses of dry white wine", "note": "about 300 ml in all", "text": "2 glasses of dry white wine (about 300 ml in all)", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": 1, "unit": "pc", "item": "glass of water", "note": "about 150 ml", "text": "1 glass of water (about 150 ml)", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": null, "unit": null, "item": "salt and black pepper", "note": "to taste, at the end", "text": "salt and black pepper (to taste, at the end)", "recipe": null } ] }, { "group": "To serve", "items": [ { "quantity": 500, "unit": "g", "item": "ziti or candele", "note": "long hollow tubes of dried pasta, broken by hand; the amount is our guide, about 80 g a person. The sauce also dresses rice", "text": "500 g ziti or candele (long hollow tubes of dried pasta, broken by hand; the amount is our guide, about 80 g a person. The sauce also dresses rice)", "recipe": null }, { "quantity": null, "unit": null, "item": "Parmigiano Reggiano, grated", "note": "at the table", "text": "Parmigiano Reggiano, grated (at the table)", "recipe": null } ] } ], "method": [ { "phase": "Preparation", "intro": null, "steps": [ { "n": 1, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-1", "title": "Chop the onions", "text": "Peel the 1.5 kg of onions, halve them from top to root and chop them with the knife, fairly finely.", "kind": "active", "minutes": 25, "celsius": null, "heat": null, "official": false, "check": "A heap of evenly chopped onion, with no long strips or large pieces left.", "tips": [ "Our guide: pieces of about 3 mm–5 mm. Small, even pieces melt into the cream at the same pace.", "Our guide: a food processor saves time and tears: work in batches with short pulses and stop while it is still a chop. A purée gives off its water at once and stews instead of cooking down." ] }, { "n": 2, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-2", "title": "Chop the celery, carrots and lardo", "text": "Trim and wash the 2 celery sticks, peel the 3 carrots and chop them finely with the 50 g of lardo. Add them to the onions.", "kind": "active", "minutes": 10, "celsius": null, "heat": null, "official": false, "check": "The lardo is in small pieces through the vegetables, with no strips left.", "tips": [ "Our guide: the lardo chops more easily straight from the fridge, while it is firm." ] }, { "n": 3, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-3", "title": "Tie the beef", "text": "Tie the 1 kg piece of girello with kitchen string, a loop every 3 cm–4 cm along its length, so it keeps its shape through the long cooking.", "kind": "active", "minutes": 5, "celsius": null, "heat": null, "official": false, "check": "A neat, even roll that holds together when you lift it by the string.", "tips": [ "Our guide: if the piece is wet, pat it dry with kitchen paper first, so it colours better." ] } ] }, { "phase": "Browning", "intro": null, "steps": [ { "n": 4, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-4", "title": "Melt the fats with the chopped mixture", "text": "Put the whole chopped mixture in the casserole with the 50 g of butter, the 100 g of lard and the glass of extra virgin olive oil (about 150 ml). Set it over medium heat and stir until the fats have melted.", "kind": "active", "minutes": 5, "celsius": null, "heat": "medium", "official": false, "check": "The fats have melted and the mixture sizzles gently all over.", "tips": [ "Our guide: a casserole of about 6 l; the onions sink to well under half that as they cook." ] }, { "n": 5, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-5", "title": "Brown the meat", "text": "Push the vegetables aside, lay the tied beef on the bottom of the casserole and brown it, turning it every 5 minutes or so and stirring the vegetables each time, until it has coloured on every side.", "kind": "active", "minutes": [ 20, 30 ], "celsius": null, "heat": "medium", "official": false, "check": "The meat has lost its raw red colour all over and has golden-brown patches; the onions are soft and translucent and most of their water has evaporated, so the mixture sizzles rather than simmers.", "tips": [ "Our guide: at first the onions give off a good deal of water and the meat stews more than it browns; keep going, and it colours as that water evaporates.", "Our guide: if the vegetables start to catch before the meat has coloured, lower the heat a little; nothing should turn dark at this stage." ] }, { "n": 6, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-6", "title": "Add the wine a little at a time", "text": "Pour in the dry white wine (about 300 ml) in about three goes, letting each bubble off before you add the next, stirring and scraping the bottom with the wooden spoon.", "kind": "active", "minutes": [ 10, 15 ], "celsius": null, "heat": "medium", "official": false, "check": "Hold your face over the pan: you can no longer smell wine, only meat and onion.", "tips": [ "Our guide: a glass is about 150 ml, so the two glasses are about 300 ml in all." ] } ] }, { "phase": "The long cooking", "intro": null, "steps": [ { "n": 7, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-7", "title": "Add the water and cover", "text": "Pour in the glass of water (about 150 ml), stir, and cover the casserole with its lid. Turn the heat down to the lowest it will go.", "kind": "active", "minutes": 2, "celsius": null, "heat": "lowest", "official": false, "check": "Under the lid, a lazy bubble breaks the surface every few seconds; no more.", "tips": [] }, { "n": 8, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-8", "title": "Cook covered on the lowest heat", "text": "Leave it to cook, covered, on the lowest heat. Every 20–30 minutes, lift the lid, turn the meat and stir the onions from the bottom with the wooden spoon.", "kind": "passive", "minutes": 90, "celsius": null, "heat": "lowest", "official": false, "check": "The onions have collapsed and turned pale gold, and there is still moisture in the pan.", "tips": [ "Our guide: if the bottom starts to stick, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of hot water and scrape it free. Never let it fry dry.", "Our guide: if even the lowest flame makes it bubble hard, set the casserole on a heat diffuser." ] }, { "n": 9, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-9", "title": "Keep cooking until the onions are a cream", "text": "Keep it covered on the lowest heat, still stirring and turning the meat every 20–30 minutes, for at least three hours in all, until the meat is very tender, the vegetables have melted into a cream and the sauce is dense and amber.", "kind": "passive", "minutes": [ 90, 150 ], "celsius": null, "heat": "lowest", "official": false, "check": "A carving fork slides into the thickest part of the meat and out again without resistance; the onions no longer show as pieces but as a thick cream that holds a trail when the spoon is drawn through it; the colour is a warm amber. If not, cover again and check every 20 minutes.", "tips": [ "Our guide: as it thickens, it catches more easily: stir more often in the last hour.", "Our guide: put the pasta water on about 20 minutes before you expect it to be done." ] }, { "n": 10, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-10", "title": "Season", "text": "Taste the sauce and season it with salt and black pepper.", "kind": "active", "minutes": 2, "celsius": null, "heat": null, "official": false, "check": "Seasoned to your taste.", "tips": [ "Our guide: season only now: the lardo is salt-cured, and the sauce has reduced a great deal." ] } ] }, { "phase": "The pasta, then the meat", "intro": null, "steps": [ { "n": 11, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-11", "title": "Rest the meat", "text": "Lift the meat onto a warm plate and cover it loosely with foil. Keep the sauce covered on the lowest heat.", "kind": "rest", "minutes": 10, "celsius": null, "heat": null, "official": false, "check": "The juices have settled: a little liquid has gathered on the plate.", "tips": [ "To make it ahead: within 2 hours of the end of cooking, cool the sauce in shallow containers and slice the meat, then cover both and put them in the fridge. Eat them within 3 days of the day they were cooked (a portion frozen within those days and thawed in the fridge has what is left of them). Bring the sauce back to a full boil, stirring, and heat the slices in it until they are at least 75 °C at the centre. Once reheated and served, anything left goes back in the fridge within 2 hours, within the same 3 days, or is thrown away, and is not reheated or set out again." ] }, { "n": 12, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-12", "title": "Cook the ziti", "text": "Bring about 5 l of water to the boil and salt it, 10 g per litre. Break the 500 g of ziti by hand into 3 or 4 pieces each, drop them in, stir and cook them until al dente.", "kind": "passive", "minutes": 12, "celsius": null, "heat": "high", "official": false, "check": "Bite a piece: it is cooked through but still firm at the centre.", "tips": [ "Our guide: drain them about a minute before the time on the packet, since they finish in the sauce.", "Our guide: break them over the pot, or inside a clean cloth, so the pieces do not fly." ] }, { "n": 13, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-13", "title": "Dress the pasta", "text": "Spoon a few ladles of sauce into a small pan for the meat. Drain the ziti and tip them into the casserole with the rest of the sauce; toss them over the lowest heat for about a minute.", "kind": "active", "minutes": 2, "celsius": null, "heat": "lowest", "official": false, "check": "Every piece is coated in the onion cream.", "tips": [ "Serve at once, with grated Parmigiano at the table." ] }, { "n": 14, "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/#step-14", "title": "Slice and serve the meat", "text": "Cut the string off the meat and slice it across the grain, about 1 cm thick. Warm the sauce kept back, lay the slices on a warm platter and spoon it over them. Serve it after the pasta, as the second course.", "kind": "active", "minutes": 5, "celsius": null, "heat": null, "official": false, "check": "Clean slices that hold together and are tender to the fork.", "tips": [ "Our guide: cutting across the grain keeps the slices from coming out stringy." ] } ] } ], "quick": [ "Chop the onions, celery, carrots and lardo, and tie the piece of girello with kitchen string.", "Put the chopped mixture in a heavy casserole with the butter, lard and olive oil, add the meat and brown it over medium heat, turning it, until the onions have given up most of their water.", "Pour in the dry white wine a little at a time, letting each addition bubble off.", "Add a glass of water, cover and cook on the lowest heat for at least three hours, stirring and turning the meat every 20–30 minutes.", "It is done when the meat is very tender, the vegetables have melted into a cream and the sauce is dense and amber. Season with salt and pepper.", "Lift out the meat and let it rest; cook ziti broken by hand until al dente and toss them with the sauce, keeping a little back.", "Serve the pasta with grated Parmigiano, then the meat, sliced, with the sauce kept back, as the second course." ], "when": { "text": "In Naples, one of the great Sunday dishes.", "source": { "label": "Il Cucchiaio d'Argento: pasta alla genovese, a recipe for 4 (Italian)", "url": "https://www.cucchiaio.it/ricetta/pasta-alla-genovese/" } }, "keeps": { "text": "The sauce keeps for a couple of days in the fridge in an airtight container, and it can be frozen.", "source": { "label": "GialloZafferano: genovese, editorial recipe for 4 (Italian)", "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Genovese.html" } }, "variants": [ { "name": "Browned with the wine at the end", "text": "The tied beef cooked covered for about two hours with sliced onions, chopped celery and carrot, Neapolitan salame, a few split cherry tomatoes, oil, butter and two glasses of water; then the meat comes out, the heat goes up and the sauce is browned, the wine poured in and boiled off in several goes, until it is a glossy dark cream. The meat goes back with a glass of water for about ten minutes, and the pasta is served with grated Parmigiano and romano cheese.", "source": { "label": "Accademia Italiana della Cucina: maccheroni alla genovese as made in Naples, from its recipe collection (Italian)", "url": "https://accademia1953.it/it/ricette/ricetta/maccheroni-alla-genovese" }, "recipe": null }, { "name": "With pork as well", "text": "Ham, or the muscle of the pig's shin called gallinella, cooked with the beef.", "source": { "label": "Accademia Italiana della Cucina: maccheroni alla genovese as made in Naples, from its recipe collection (Italian)", "url": "https://accademia1953.it/it/ricette/ricetta/maccheroni-alla-genovese" }, "recipe": null }, { "name": "Without water, the wine at the end", "text": "Thinly sliced onions, celery and carrot cooked in olive oil with the beef in pieces, covered, for about three hours with no water, the onions giving off their own; then the heat goes up and the wine goes in a little at a time, uncovered, for about another hour as the bottom dries.", "source": { "label": "GialloZafferano: genovese, editorial recipe for 4 (Italian)", "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Genovese.html" }, "recipe": null }, { "name": "With a little tomato", "text": "A few cherry tomatoes, or a little tomato concentrate, cooked in the sauce.", "source": { "label": "GialloZafferano: genovese, editorial recipe for 4 (Italian)", "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Genovese.html" }, "recipe": null }, { "name": "Molise style", "text": "Made with copertella (also called biancostato) and a few sinews, fatty ham with its rind, onions, celery, carrot and parsley, browned over a lively heat, splashed with white wine and cooked for about two hours; served on broken candele, paccheri or fresh egg pasta with plenty of Parmigiano, and the meat may be minced for meatballs.", "source": { "label": "Accademia Italiana della Cucina: salsa genovese as made in Molise, from its recipe collection (Italian)", "url": "https://accademia1953.it/it/ricette/ricetta/salsa-genovese-0" }, "recipe": null } ], "variantOf": [], "usedIn": [], "mistakes": [ "Hurrying it over a higher heat: the onions catch on the bottom before they have melted. Keep it covered on the lowest heat for at least three hours.", "Leaving it unstirred for long: the thick onion cream sticks. Stir it and turn the meat every 20–30 minutes, more often towards the end.", "Stopping while the onions still show as pieces or are pale: they must be a dense, amber cream.", "Salting at the start: the lardo is salt-cured and the sauce reduces a great deal. Taste and season at the end.", "Slicing the meat straight from the pot, or along the grain: rest it for 10 minutes and cut across the grain." ], "abroad": [ "Girello, or lacerto, is the eye of round, a long, lean muscle; ask for one piece of about 1 kg. Fattier, sinewy cuts of adult beef, such as the shoulder (chuck), are also used, and suit the long cooking.", "Lardo is cured pork back fat, sold in a piece or in slices; strutto is rendered pork lard, sold as lard.", "Any white, golden (yellow) or copper-skinned onion will do; in Campania white or copper-skinned (ramata) onions are used.", "Ziti are long, hollow tubes of dried pasta, and candele (zitoni) are similar, broken by hand the same way; without them, paccheri will do." ], "image": "https://nonnario.com/assets/img/genovese.jpg", "video": "https://nonnario.com/assets/video/genovese.mp4?v=0c99f8e54f", "versions": { "page": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese/", "markdown": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese.md", "json": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/genovese.json" }, "cite": "Cite the recipe's page and the month its sources were checked; for the official text itself, cite the document listed under its sources.", "license": { "name": "CC BY-NC 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" } }