At Vesuvio Panoramic Restaurant in Sorrento, Executive Chef Giuseppe Saccone embraces tradition, but with a bold vision for reinterpretation when it comes to Neapolitan cuisine. For Saccone, every dish becomes an exploration, striving not only to honour local culinary roots but to elevate classic recipes with nuanced techniques and innovative pairings. Take, for instance, his reimagined Neapolitan ragù, a dish rooted in family memories yet approached with fresh precision — each cut of meat prepared separately to preserve its unique texture, then harmonised with a vibrant, delicate sauce. His menu is a love letter to the Campania region, where tomatoes, cherished family recipes, and sustainable, local ingredients anchor his culinary artistry, celebrating the flavours that define both the landscape and culture of Sorrento.
Here, Chef Giuseppe gives The Knife a firsthand account of the thought process that goes into famous dishes found at the Vesuvio Panoramic Restaurant.
Ragù
Our regional cuisine has a lot of masterpieces. Recipes that belong to the best memories of everybody around us. With my “reinterpretation” of the tradition I want to put those dishes under a new, different light. The question that I try to answer is: “Is there a way to improve the original recipe?” In the La Domenica a Napoli – the ragù, I concentrate on two points: to make it a little lighter and to try to exalt the different cuts of meats.
In the original recipe all the meats are cooked together for long hours. The result is that some of the meat melts and breaks. In our dish we use the meat for tradition to create a delicious sauce paying attention to not overcook it; then we blend part of it to make it lighter and smoother. The actual meat you find in the dish is cooked separately. There are four different cuts of meat: pork belly, meatball, beef muscle and traditional beef roll “braciola”, with parsley, pecorino cheese and sultanas. In this way, each of the cuts is cooked to perfection. They are connected from the sauce poured in the dish directly at the table. We serve it with a crunchy bread, “cuzzetiello” filled with sautéed spicy garlic broccoli Neapolitan style: a perfect match.
Mains and Dessert
As was in the houses of our grandmothers so it is also in our kitchen – we try to not waste ingredients. In fact, part of the meat and sauce cooked for the ragù is used for our Lasagna dish. Our hotel is working mostly in the summer, so being the classic Lasagna – a heavy dish usually eaten in late winter – we decided to make it lighter without baking it for long. In this way you can better taste the texture of the pasta itself and enjoy the flavour of the single ingredients. We also like to use buffalo fresh ricotta to give the dish a peculiar creaminess.
For the “Babà” the story was different. We tried to interpret the “babà” in many ways before realising that we have no answers for the question: “How can we improve the classic babà?”. We finally decided to keep to the original recipe. We are just adding a side of cream and some raspberries to create a bit of a contrast.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are probably the main ingredient of our regional cuisine. We have many to choose from and we try to use them all! We work with seasonal ingredients and not all of them are ready at the same time. So we use different tomatoes in different months. The tomatoes are never the same: some give you sweetness (yellow “datterino”), some give you acidity, some are very good for long cooking sauces (San Marzano), while others are perfect with fish (“ciliegino” and datterino). From late July we have on our tables the famous Pomodoro di Sorrento. Absolutely the best tomatoes to prepare a salad; all you need is four ingredients – tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, basil and salt. Locals have it every single day during summertime!
Also interesting is the Pomodoro del Piennolo that comes from Vesuvio. These cherry tomatoes are sewn together by hand and hanged in a dark place with fresh air. This technique gives the chance to preserve the tomatoes for months! The result is a tomato particularly concentrated in flavours and not so watery.
Tableware
We use a lot of different brands of tableware. Although I prefer white supports, in my kitchen we have probably more than 30 different dishes of all shapes and colours to choose from when we create a recipe. And we are always looking for something new and inspiring! That’s a nice part of my job. My favourite is our Vesuvio plate that was made exclusively for us from Broggi and Studio Raw. This is where we serve our amuse-bouche that simulates a volcanic stone in the mouth of the active volcano!
Family
The main challenge is creating the new Homage to Nonne Etta, to remember the lady who opened the hotel and the grandmother of the present owner. Simplicity, roots and a respect for tradition are at the root of our menu. It recalls a time (the early 50s) where there was not much to choose from in the kitchen. Where the “kilometre zero” was not a fashion but a necessity. When Sunday was the only day with a complete meal from the hors d’oeuvres to the dessert. That’s why we have similar ingredients in the courses.
Tomatoes are in most of the courses. That’s because the hotel was a private house, and they use to grow their own vegetables. Artichokes were in the garden too, so we serve it with butter and local Cetara anchovies. On Sundays, during winter, the dish is the “ragù” and during summer it’s the fresh fish. This will be poached in light cherry tomato (ciliegino) sauce with local herbs. We call it “Acqua Pazza style”, which means crazy water… don’t ask me why!
And for desserts, of course, it’s the Babà! This menu comes from the memories of Giuliana Gatti, the elder nephew of Nonna Etta, mother of Pietro and Francesco Monti who are managing the hotel nowadays together with Sergio and Alessandra Maresca, their cousins! As per Italian tradition: “family is everything.”