Naples' signature meat-and-onion ragu: beef chuck simmered for 4 to 6 hours with an enormous quantity of golden onions until they reduce to a melting brown jam, served over ziti or paccheri pasta.

Genovese ragu is one of Naples' two great pasta ragus alongside the more famous tomato-and-beef ragu napoletano. Despite the name, the dish is wholly Neapolitan; the most credible theory is that 15th-century Genoese merchants in Naples ran taverns serving a related onion-stew dish that local cooks adopted. The structural distinction is the volume of onions: at least 2 to 3 times the weight of the meat, cooked low and slow for 4 to 6 hours until they break down into a thick brown puree. The dish is served exclusively with long tube pasta (ziti or paccheri).

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