The ragu’ is a sauce that has the taste of meat and mostly used as a pasta condiment. The word “ragu” is adapted from the French ragout or ragouter meaning to tease the appetite. Ragu’ sauce is made all over Italy and it varies from region to region and to be more precise from family to family. In Northern Italy the famous Bolognese sauce is basically made with chopped meat, onions, carrots, celery and such a small amount of tomato paste, that it’s hardly detectable. If you go a few miles outside Bologna you will barely notice the presence of tomato, but the further you travel towards the south of Italy , the more red the ragu’ becomes.

In Sicily, the ragu’ is a sauce made when the family gets together or for that special occasion when there are a lot of guests. The familiar name is “Sunday Sauce”, it is prepared the day it is served when the family is reunited for the Sunday dinner. I have noticed this tradition still alive not only in families of Sicilians and their descendants but also in many Italian-American families. Mr. Frank Curcurato made some observations on the different ways this sauce was made by his Sicilian paternal grandmother from Syracuse and the maternal grandmother from Naples. As for the name, Frank tells me that some families living in New Jersey call it “New York Sauce”.

You will find a description of the different ways to make this sauce. The Sicilian Ragu’ was originally made with a very thick tomato paste called in dialect astrattu (estratto in Italian, extracts), sautéed with onions and to enhance the taste bones where added preferably of pork, beef or veal. According to the season or the family pantry, fresh or preserved tomatoes are used with the paste. Accordingly to the number of persons sharing the meal are added salsiccia (sausages), pittinicchi (boned pork spareribs), cotenna (pork’s skin), polpette (meatballs) or a boneless loin roast stuffed with garlic.

When my mother cooked ragu’, my father who knew about cooking, supervised the preparation as a strict observer to make sure that my mother would not make any shortcut but follow rigorously the traditional procedure. To cook the ragu’ it would take a few hours and the smell filled the air. Our big dining room table was always full to capacity because, without fail, the scent attracted some of our neighbors, who were also friends that would enjoy the “Sunday Ragu” with us. It was a “Piatto Unico”, a complete meal because the sauce was used as a condiment for the pasta, and the meats were used as the entree.