The Sunday dish of Sète's Italian-immigrant families: macaroni dressed in a long-simmered meat sauce made from beef daube and brageole (stuffed, rolled beef parcels) braised for hours in red wine and tomato, finished with grated cheese. The braised meats are served as a second course after the pasta, in the Italian manner. Rich and slow, the macaronade is the home equivalent of Sète's celebratory table.
Sète's large community of Italian fishing families, many descended from immigrants from Gaeta and the Naples region, brought the southern-Italian habit of serving pasta sauced with a meat ragù and then the braised meat separately. Adapted to local ingredients, it became the macaronade — a Sunday and feast-day dish of the port. It is a living family tradition documented through local custom rather than a single dated invention, and it sits alongside tielle and bourride as one of the three home dishes most identified with Sète.
A plate of macaroni glossed in a deep, wine-dark tomato sauce that has cooked down for hours, dusted with cheese — the sauce tastes of beef and time more than of tomato. Then the meats arrive: a slice of beef daube falling apart at the fork, and a brageole — a thin slice of beef rolled around garlic, parsley and ham, sliced to show its spiral. It is a two-act, unhurried meal, the kind that ties up a Sunday afternoon.
The sauce is a true long braise: tough beef cuts and the rolled brageole are seared, then simmered for hours in red wine and tomato until collagen melts to gelatin and the sauce takes on body and a glossy sheen. Tomato's acidity and the wine's tannins help break down the connective tissue while the meat perfumes the sauce. Tossing the macaroni in this concentrated gravy and finishing with cheese binds it; the meat, having given its flavour to the sauce, is rested and served whole as the second course.
Variations
The meat mix varies — beef daube and brageole are classic, but some families add pork, sausage or meatballs to the pot. The pasta is usually a large tube macaroni. Some make it as a baked, gratinéed dish with extra cheese on top; others keep it simply tossed. The number of meats reflects how festive the occasion is.
On the Palate
Where Macaronade Sétoise sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
6 steps · 1 hour 10 min active + 2 hours 50 min waiting
- 125 min
Make brageole: spread thin beef slices with garlic, parsley and chopped ham, roll and tie.
- 215 min
Sear the brageole and beef daube pieces in oil until browned.
Watch outSear the brageole and beef until well browned before braising — that crust builds the deep flavor the whole sauce is later built on.
- 3180 min
Soften onion and garlic, add tomato and red wine, return the meats and braise gently for several hours.
- 415 min
Lift out the meats and rest; reduce the sauce until glossy and thick.
Watch outReduce the sauce until glossy and thick — the collagen has to melt to gelatin for the gravy to gain body and coat the macaroni.
- 515 min
Boil the macaroni, drain, and toss with plenty of the sauce and grated cheese.
- 65 min
Serve the pasta first, then the sliced meats as a second course.
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