Every Sunday
Sunday ragù
In Naples, and in Italian American homes, a meat sauce simmers from early on Sunday morning.

What is eaten for Sunday ragù
Sunday lunch in Naples is built on ragù, a sauce of tomato and large pieces of meat that cooks very slowly for hours. The sauce dresses the pasta as a first course, and the meat is eaten as the second. Italian families who went to the United States kept the habit and call it Sunday gravy or Sunday sauce, with meatballs, sausages and braciole in the pot. The whole extended family is expected at the table.
The dishes
Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Neapolitan ragù" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Meatball: Myself, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ziti: Popo le Chien, CC0, source