The word “ragù” on an Italian menu usually signifies a meat sauce. Everyone knows ragù bolognese, which many Americans make into “my spaghetti” by adding things like bell peppers and topping it with a “cheese” that contains wood and comes in a popular green can.
Ragù bolognese is a meat sauce that the good people of Bologna make, as the name implies. It is usually served with tagliatelle and not spaghetti.
Which brings us to ragù alla genovese, which isn’t a ragù like the people of Genoa make. It is a dish you’re more likely to find in the southern region of Campagna. Perhaps a cook from Genoa made up the dish, we seem to have lost the thread of its history.
In its simplest form, ragù alla Genovese is made from chunks of braising beef and onions, lots of onions. A long, slow cooking (3-4 hours!) causes the onion to give up their liquid, which becomes the liquid of the sauce. It also breaks down the meat into the threads you see in the picture above.
The cook might add some tomato paste or small tomatoes, pomodorini to cut the richness of the sauce. Some go so far as to add carrot or celery. Sometimes a cook will choose other meat. There’s even an octopus alla Genovese. The picture above shows the most basic genovese, made with beef.
The pasta is usually relatively large and short, like the paccheri shown above—ziti or zitoni (big ziti) are also popular around Naples.