Pork Ragu
Everything is better with Pork.
Full Recipe Video:
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
3-4 lb. boneless pork shoulder (trimmed & tied - see notes)
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped fine
1/2 cup carrots, chopped fine
1/2 cup celery, chopped fine
2 cans San Marzano Tomatoes (28 oz. can)
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. crushed red pepper (add more if you want it spicier)
2 bay leaves (dried or fresh)
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig thyme
1 lb. pappardelle (or pasta of your choice - see notes)
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Fresh parsley, finely chopped for garnish
Preheat oven to 300.
Take the pork shoulder out of the refrigerator about 45 minutes to an hour before cooking to bring to room temperature.
Add the cans of tomatoes to a large mixing bowl, and break down the tomatoes with your hands. Get dirty! You want the majority of the tomatoes broken apart - but a few little chunks of tomato here and there is good. In fact, we like that! Set aside.
Season your meat on all sides with salt and pepper until all surface is covered. If your butcher doesn’t tie the pork shoulder with butcher’s twine, we suggest doing this - it helps hold the meat together. Just a few pieces of butcher’s twine tied around the meat is fine.
Place your Dutch oven on your stove top and bring to medium/high heat. Coat the bottom of the Dutch oven with olive oil.
When olive oil is hot, brown your roast on all sides and ends - about 2 minutes each side - until crusted brown. Remove pork to a plate.
With heat on low/medium, add onion, carrot, and celery to pot. Cook down until tender, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with a little salt.
Add garlic. Cook 1-2 minutes until golden.
Add tomato paste. Combine.
Deglaze with red wine. Bring pot to a simmer, increasing the heat if needed.
Add San Marzano tomatoes. Stir to combine all ingredients.
Add oregano and crushed red pepper.
Add pork shoulder back to pot with fat side facing up.
Add bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme.
Cover and cook in oven for an hour per pound (if you pork is 4 lbs., cook 4 hours.). The pork is ready when it’s falling apart.
About 5 minutes before the pork is done, start boiling your water for pasta. As always, heavily salt the water.
Remove pot from oven. Remove pork to cutting board - cut the twine off and shred pork into bite size pieces and add it back to the sauce and combine.
Remove herbs (bay leaves, rosemary, thyme) from the sauce and discard.
Once water is boiling, cook your pasta according to the package directions for al dente pasta.
In a large sauce pan, add a couple ladles of the ragu sauce and bring heat to low/medium. Start adding your pasta to the sauce pan, and continue to spoon ladles of the sauce and toss pasta with sauce until coated. Make sure to not saturate pasta with sauce, but make sure all pasta is coated.
As you add the pasta, some of that pasta water will get incorported, but you can spoon a little in with the sauce if it feels to thick.
To serve: spoon or tong a serving of pasta to a plate or pasta bowl. Spoon a little extra ragu sauce over the top. Grate fresh parmesan over the top and garnish with fresh parsley if you like and serve!
Notes:
Pork: We suggest using a premium quality pork for this recipe from a butcher. As mentioned in the recipe, the butcher should be able to trim the excess fat for you and tie it.
Veggies: If you live near a Trader Joes, you’re probably familiar with their mirapoix mixture (onion, carrot, and celery pre-chopped). You’re certainly welcome to chop your veggies yourself, but sometimes we cheat and grab the TJ Mirapoix! It’s the exact amount you need.
Herbs: For the sprigs or rosemary and thyme, we have gotten into the habit of tying these together with some butcher twine as well when we add to a sauce - when you slow cook for hours, everything breaks down, and this makes it easier to remove and keeps the herbs contained so you don’t have stray leaves in your sauce.
Pasta: We like pappardelle for this ragu, as it’s a classic combination, but you can use any hearty pasta of your choice. If using a “twirly” pasta, we would not suggest anything thinner than a linguine. This would also be delicious with a rigatoni or any other pasta you think could handle a thick, meaty sauce.
Options: Gary grew up with his grandmother serving this sauce over white rice. A nice option to pasta if you feel like doing something different.
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