Italian - Pork Sugo & Pappardelle


Papardelle with Pork Sugo Here’s the finished dish, garnished with grated parmigiano reggiano and chopped parsley.

The sugo and garnish were great, but the pasta was awful. I think the last time I tried to make pasta was in the 90’s. I didn’t have a pasta roller, so I had to try and roll the pasta out by hand with a rolling pin. I did not succeed. I’m not even going to talk about it.

Bonus. Pappardelle with Marinara. Garnished with chopped distraction parsley. This is the same pasta failure, but the sauce is a proven recipe made with homegrown tomatoes.

The Pork Sugo is a two day affair. I’m working with this recipe: http://www.7x7.com/secret-recipe-pork-sugo-from-delfina-1781030203.html

I was running low on onions, so I ended up with a combination of white and red onions instead of yellow. We’ve also got carrots, celery, tomato paste, white wine, chicken broth, rosemary and dried sage (from last summer’s garden).




Just keeping the chef hydrated.



Sear the pork shoulder and spareribs in oil in small batches. At least 2-3 minutes per side and 3-4 batches total, this is the bulk of the active time investment. Building up the flavor from creating that crust is worth it, though.



In go the vegetables and herbs. This part smells like the holidays all over again.



Baby, you've got a stew going.



That bed of sauteed vegetables topped with the, seared pork and all of the stock that will fit in your pot go into the oven for a few hours to make some magic.



Fast forward. Day 2. After skimming the fat and removing the meat for deboning and shredding, the remaining liquid and vegetables go into the blender to puree. The recipe says to use a food mill instead, and I should have followed those directions. I missed removing a small bone at first and that caused a bit of extra hassle. This cooks down a little bit more and then the shredded pork will get mixed back in.



Left, heating up a serving of sugo with some butter, fresh parsley and chili flakes. Right, heating up some frozen red sauce with chili flakes. The red sauce is a slow cooked tomato sauce made with tomatoes from last year's garden. I make large batches in the late summer when there are more tomatoes in the garden than I know what to do with. I cook the sauce and freeze it in 1 or 2 cup vacuum sealed portions for quick meals later. I'll do the same with the leftover sugo.



Hot garbage simmering! We've got tomato sauce simmering at the top and our pork sugo heating up with some butter and fresh parsley on the bottom. After the pasta is cooked and drained, we just toss it with each of the sauces and serve.



That's it. You saw the finished product at the very beginning. There's nothing else to see. It's far from pretty, but that's just how it ends.



Lest we forget, our trusty taste tester.