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1
Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy-bottomed pot over a low flame. Add the onion and garlic and cook gently until the onion is fully softened and translucent, without colour — 15 to 20 minutes. Add the anchovy fillets at this early stage and press them against the base of the pot with a wooden spoon until they dissolve entirely into the oil. The smell of anchovy should recede; what remains is a round, saline depth with no fishiness.
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2
Add the crumbled dried chilli, then pour in the hand-crushed San Marzano tomatoes with all their juice. Stir to combine. Drop in the Parmigiano rind. Bring the sauce to a bare simmer — small, infrequent bubbles breaking the surface — then reduce the heat to its lowest setting.
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3
Add the olives, capers, raisins, and pine nuts. Stir once to distribute. Leave the sauce to simmer uncovered for a minimum of three hours, stirring occasionally but not constantly. At intervals, scrape any caramelised deposit (fondo) from the base back into the sauce — this is part of the flavour. This is where the dish lives or dies: the sauce must cook long enough for the tomato's acidity to give way entirely to a deep, sweet, almost caramelised intensity; a sauce pulled from the heat before this transformation is complete is a different and lesser thing.
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4
After three to four hours, the sauce will have reduced substantially and darkened in colour from bright red to a deep brick-burgundy. It should coat a spoon thickly and smell of concentrated, sweet tomato rather than raw acidity. Remove the Parmigiano rind and the garlic cloves if they remain whole. Adjust salt with care — the capers, anchovies, and olives carry salt already.
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5
Cook the ziti or paccheri in well-salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, reserving a ladleful of pasta water. Dress the pasta directly in the pot with the ragù, loosening with a little pasta water if needed, until each piece is fully coated. The surface should be glossy and the sauce should cling without pooling on the plate.