Traditional Meat Ragout Pasta (“Dirty” Macaroni)

TRADITIONAL MEAT RAGOUT PASTA (“DIRTY” MACARONI)

The dish made of pasta and meat sauce was called Sporchi Macaroni (or dirty macaroni) because of the way it used to be served. Namely, after the meat sauce had been eaten, the last guests were served only the pasta with the remaining sauce with no meat - the stained, or sporchi macaroni.

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

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 a low heat. The meat will release its juices. Once the juices have evaporated, add the tomato concentrate diluted with 50 ml of water. Add the grape molasses, stir and keep cooking over a low heat.

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

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until the pasta 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.