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TRADITIONAL MEAT RAGOUT PASTA (“DIRTY” MACARONI)

Taste this Dubrovnik dish typical of winter and great festivities,...

TRADITIONAL MEAT RAGOUT PASTA (“DIRTY” MACARONI)
sporki_makaruli_1 sporki_makaruli_2

which the Dubrovnik aristocrats prepared on St Blaise Day. The dish made of paste and meat sauce was called Sporchi Macaroni because of the way it used to be served. Namely, after the meat sauce had been eaten, the last guest were served only the paste with the remaining sauce with no meat - the stained, or sporchi macaroni.

The dish Sporchi Macaroni consists of meat sauce with macaroni or flour paste made in the form of tubes (called makaruli in the Dubrovnik dialect), being the basis of the menus for the Dubrovnik carnival and festivities. The Sporchi Macaroni recipe reveals a direct influence of the Italian cuisine, and bears a resemblance to the so called ragu di carne.

Ingredients

1 kg beef shank, 2 tablespoons lard or 4 tablespoons olive oil, 3 medium onions, 4 garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon tomato concentrate, 50 ml grape molasses, 1 bunch of fresh parsley (leaves only), salt and pepper, ½ teaspoon ground cloves, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 3 – 4 pitted prunes, 150 ml quality red wine, 500 g ziti pasta and hard sheep cheese

 

Method

Heat the lard or olive oil in a pan, add the chopped onion and cook until the onion is translucent – it mustn’t brown. Then add the finely chopped garlic, meat cut into cubes and cook just a little, to seal the meat. Add the prunes, salt and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat. The meat will release its juices. Once the juices have evaporated, add the tomato concentrate diluted with 50 ml water. Add the grape molasses, stir and keep cooking over low heat.

When the meat is cooked halfway through, add the wine, parsley and spices (cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon) and keep cooking covered over low heat for 2 h.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until the paste reaches the texture you desire. Strain it, leaving just a little bit of the cooking water so that the pasta can be easily combined with the sauce. Serve sprinkled with grated local dry sheep cheese.

 

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