Mimmo De Gregorio's recipe: Genoese candles (but they are Neapolitan)

It is a recipe of the purest Neapolitan tradition that has nothing to do with the Ligurian capital. Among the various origins of the name, one refers to the Aragonese period. At the time there were numerous taverns in the port run by Genoese cooks. Among the favorite dishes there was a sauce made with onion and a whole piece of meat called “o tucc”.  
But there is another theory according to which the dish was invented by a Neapolitan chef nicknamed “'o genoves' perhaps because he made a trip to Genoa…

Ingredients:

– 320 g. of candles
– Extra virgin olive oil dop Sorrento Peninsula
– 5-6 Onions of the coppery type of montoro particularly suitable for this dish
- carrots
- celery
– bay leaf and rosemary
– 300 g. of veal (Annecchia) rump or lacerto
– 100 g. of pork lard
– a drop of redfoot wine
– tomato paste 200g
- flour
– 40 g. of Cilento cacioricotta (slow food presidium)

Preparation

In a saucepan, sauté extra virgin olive oil and coppery onion. As soon as the onion browns, add the aromas of bay leaf, rosemary, celery and carrots.

Then add the piece of meat and the lard and cook over a low/slow flame for about two and a half hours, and finally add a glass of wine to flavor it with a pinch of salt, then the tomato paste and as it cooks add about half a liter of water.

Finally, once the meat is cooked, remove the piece of meat from the pot and thicken the sauce with flour if it is too liquid.

Drain the pasta al dente and mix it with the Genoese sauce and add a grated Cilento ricotta cheese at the end. The cooked piece of meat can be cut into small pieces and added to the plate of candles or it can be cut into slices and served as a second course.