Maccheroni al Ragù della Nonna Molisana

Heat the olive oil in a wide, heavy-bottomed pot — a cast-iron casserole or terracotta if available — over a medium-high flame. Working in uncrowded batches, brown the spare ribs, sausages, and hand-rolled meatballs on all sides. The Maillard crust on each piece creates depth that cannot develop during the braise. Remove each batch and set aside. The pan base should carry a deep, even fond — not scorched.

Reduce the flame to medium-low. Add the diced onion, celery, and carrot — in equal parts — to the same pot without cleaning it. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are fully softened and translucent but not coloured. The soffritto must not caramelise; it provides sweetness and aromatic base, not bitterness.

Pour in the red wine and raise the heat momentarily to deglaze, scraping up the fond from the pan base. Allow the wine to reduce by half so the raw alcohol smell has completely dissipated. The aroma should be fruity and vinous, no longer sharp.

Add the San Marzano tomatoes — crushed by hand directly into the pot, not puréed — ensuring they are at or near room temperature before they meet the hot soffritto. Return all browned meats to the pot along with the pork rind. Stir once to distribute.

This is where the dish lives or dies: bring the ragù to the gentlest possible simmer, partially cover the pot, and maintain that barely-moving heat for a minimum of four hours. Stir only occasionally — constant agitation disrupts the gentle surface reduction and the slow collagen extraction from the ribs and rind. At two hours the sauce will still read thin and acidic; this is expected. By four hours the pork collagen should have dissolved completely into the sauce, the rind will have disappeared, and the liquid will coat the back of a spoon heavily and show a deep, rust-red colour with pools of orange-tinted fat at the surface.

In the final 30 minutes, lift the pot from the flame and allow residual heat to finish the sauce — this prevents burning on the pan base. Season with fine sea salt only now, after full reduction, as the liquid will have concentrated by approximately 40 per cent. Taste; the sauce should read deep, sweet, and rounded with no residual acidity.

Cook the maccheroni in generously salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, reserving a ladleful of pasta water. Toss the pasta with several ladles of the ragù and a little pasta water if needed to loosen. Finish with grated aged cheese. Serve the sauced pasta as the first course. Bring the meats — ribs, sausages, meatballs — to the table separately as the secondo, following the correct Molisano Sunday sequence.