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Languedoc-Roussillon
In Sète, there is no family Sunday or major celebration without a "maca" — red-wine tomato sauce simmered for three hours, brageoles, and macaroni, a direct legacy of the Neapolitan fishermen of the Quartier Haut.
Traditional dish from Languedoc-Roussillon.
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The dish's origins date back to the 18th century, with the mass arrival of Italian immigrants, mostly fishermen, who left the province of Naples — Gaeta and Cetara — for the fish-rich waters of the golfe du Lion. Macaronade descends specifically from the Neapolitan ragù brought by families from Cetara, on the Amalfi Coast: a distinction that matters, as it was the families from Gaeta, further north, who brought the tielle with them. These fishermen settled on the heights above the port of Sète, in the Quartier Haut, where the streets long echoed with Neapolitan rather than Italian — Sète's "Petit Naples". The word "macaronade" itself is an Occitanised term (using the Occitan suffix "-ade") derived from the Neapolitan dialect, denoting variations on pasta and, in particular, macaroni.
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Daily life for these fishing families revolved around seafood, including octopus — "pouffre" in Sétois. Yet on Sundays, cousins and elders gathered around a luxury dish: a tomato sauce gently simmered for hours with meat. Over the decades, as living conditions improved, macaronade grew richer: from one meat, it expanded to two, then three — to the point where it is said today in Sète that there are as many macaronades as there are Sétois. The dish became a staple of the town's major gatherings — the jousts, the Saint-Louis, the Saint-Pierre — and above all of family Sundays, where it continues to be simmered the day before, only to be reheated on the day. In the fishing district of Pointe Courte, there is even a version turned towards the sea.
To establish a benchmark version, the Confrérie du Taste Macaronade surveyed the home cooks of Sète's Petit Naples. Another gastronomic brotherhood, the confrérie des Mille et une Pâtes, tielles et coquillages du bassin de Thau, champions macaronade today alongside the tielle and shellfish, Sète's other culinary emblems. A world championship of macaronade was even held in the 1990s: a sauce that remained scarlet instead of turning reddish-brown resulted in disqualification, the sign of a cooking time deemed too short.
Appearance
Dense, brown sauce verging on dark red, coating large macaroni, rigatoni, or penne rigate; served separately from the meats — rolled brageoles, pork ribs, and sausage — in a second dish.
Aroma
Deeply browned tomato purée, red wine, garlic, and parsley, meats simmered for hours.
Taste
Rich and generous, full-bodied tomato sauce lifted by chilli and garlic, melt-in-the-mouth meats that yield to a fork, a hint of grated Parmesan or Pecorino on serving.
Texture
Al dente pasta with a wide hollow holding the thick sauce; brageole tender to the core after two to three hours of simmering; sauce bound by the browned tomato purée.
the version for large gatherings, with three meats (brageole, croustillous, sausage) added to the sauce at different times, for nearly three hours of simmering.
a quick weekday version, which replaces the rolled meats with small pieces of pork belly.
a seafood-oriented variation made with slipper lobsters (crustaceans), which shorten the cooking time.
the brageoles are browned with sliced onions, then set aside.
half an hour later, the pork ribs, browned in a frying pan, join the sauce for about two further hours of simmering.
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Macaronade is traditionally served in two separate dishes — the pasta coated in sauce on one side, the meats on the other — with grated Parmesan and Pecorino Romano served to your heart's content. It is enjoyed with family, for a Sunday lunch or a major traditional festival, placed directly in the centre of the table for greater conviviality. It is all the better for being prepared the day before and reheated the following day. It is accompanied by a supple, low-tannin Languedoc red wine, served lightly chilled so as not to weigh down an already generous plate.
No official quality mark (PDO (AOP), PGI (IGP), Label Rouge) protects macaronade sétoise: its transmission relies on family tradition and local gastronomic brotherhoods — the Confrérie du Taste Macaronade, which surveyed home cooks in the Petit Naples district to establish a benchmark recipe, and the confrérie des Mille et une Pâtes, tielles et coquillages du bassin de Thau, which champions it alongside the tielle and shellfish.
Brotherhood
Brotherhood
Restaurant
Brasserie
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