Benedetta and Antonio Ruggiero'a fried paccheri recipe transforms a Sunday classic into ever-so satisfying comfort food. These two young readers, 23 and 18 years old respectively, are siblings from Nocera Superiore, a town in Campania that's south of Naples near Salerno.
The dish was born by chance. “One Sunday, we had some leftover ragù, so we came up with this idea. We liked it so much so that it went into our family recipe book and is now a classic,” says Benedetta, an architecture student in Naples. “The secret is to cook the paccheri until very al dente and use Japanese panko for the breading, which makes the pasta thicker and tastier.”
Antonio, a high school student, completes the recipe with a creamy Parmigiano sauce – he has always played sous chef to his sister. “Our parents both worked, so Benedetta started cooking early. I observed it and learned.” Her specialty, pizza with yellow cherry tomatoes, pancetta, and shredded buffalo mozzarella, ”is truly unsurpassable," she reveals.
And with the paccheri, the wheat pastiera, and the macaroni pizza, she ends up in long, cheerful lunches in the garden of the house. Here's the recipe so you can try it at home.
Fried Paccheri Stuffed With Ragù
Photo: Riccardo Lettieri, Styling: Beatrice Prada
Cooking Time 5 hours
Ingredients for 30 pieces
For the ragù
1 lb. | 500 g ground beef
20 oz. | 500 g. tomato purée
7 oz. | 200 g. sausage, crumbled
4 oz. | 100 g. mortadella, diced
2 oz. | 60 g. soffritto (diced onion, celery, and carrot)
extra-virgin olive oil
milk
salt
pepper
For the paccheri
7 oz.| 200 g. | 30 paccheri
2-3 large eggs
flour
panko or blended toast smoothie
peanut oil
salt
pepper
For the Parmigiano Cream
Use this recipe
Make the ragù
Drizzle a saucepan with olive oil and cook the soffritto. Add the ground beef, the crumbled sausage, and diced mortadella and brown, adding salt and pepper. Add the purée and 1 ladle of water. Cover and cook over low heat for at least 3 hours. Half an hour before turning off, dissolve with 1 glass of milk. Complete cooking and let the sauce cool completely.\
Make the paccheri
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt. Cook the pasta and drain when very al dente – around five minutes before the suggested cooking time. Cool under running water to stop cooking.
Transfer the ragù to a pastry bag and stuff the paccheri. Pass them in the flour, then in the beaten eggs, and finally in the panko. Heat plenty of peanut oil (enough to submerge the paccheri) up to 338°F/170°C.
Submerge the paccheri in the oil, brown for around 2-3 minutes. Remove and let dry on kitchen paper. Serve immediately, seasoned with salt and pepper and alongside the Parmigiano cream.